That's really not too bad.
Some years ago I was paying almost 100% insurance rate on tree wages.
There are several approaches for reducing the insurance bill. You can reduce the amount of "high rate" payroll, you can reduce the total amount of payroll, and you can work on ways to reduce the rate you pay for WC.
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The best and quickest way is to divert as much of your payroll into other (lower rate) categories of employment. Almost everything is lower than tree work. Keep a rigorous record of time spent doing tree work, and time spent on other activities like driving, ground work only, cleaning up around the shop, etc.
Your workers comp bill is based on your payroll, and that can be divided into a number of categories. My groundmen are kept in the category of "Park NOC", which is basically gardeners. When my tree climbers are climbing, they record the number of hours on their time cards as "tree wages", and then the WC rate goes up. Make sure that you are not paying mechanics, office help, or salesman at the tree WC rate! Huge over-run on WC expense there!
There are a large number of dirty tricks that can be used to keep the amount of payroll in tree wages as low as possible. I won't go into that here, but you can use your imagination. Keep in mind that any dirty tricks on payroll reporting are probably not legal.
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Then there are ways to get your basic rate down. There is an organization called NCCI that keeps a record of all your WC claims. You can contact them and they will get you a copy of your experience mod. They may have other helpful ideas, although I would bet against it. Very bureaucratic, a pain to deal with in my experience. Your insurance agent can help you get this also:
National Council on Comp. Ins.
Midwestern Division
P.O. 19430
Springfield IL
62794-9430
1-217-793-1100 1800-622-4123 cust serv
They compile a very complex formula into a number called your "experience mod". It is CRITICAL to keep this number LOW! Your are obliged to report every little minor injury that your men report. Technically, a non-expensed report of injury is not supposed to add to your experience mod ("mod"), but I think it does.
You are allowed to pay up to $500 (in Missouri) for small medical claims to help keep your "mod" lower. DO IT! The number of claims reported is as important as the size of the claims, so it is essential to keep the number of claims as low as possible.
Watch all your medical bills for errors and unnecessary items. Use a medical clinic for small injuries that specializes in business and WC claims. A clinic like that is much cheaper than an emergency room.
If you have a serious problem that requires a specialist, try to go straight to the specialist, rather than going through the emergency room first. A good example is foreign objects in an eye: take them straight to the ophthalmologist. Lower bill, quicker fix, less frustration than the ER.
See if your WC carrier has any medical advisory capacity. Some of them will work with you to see how you can keep your bills lower.
Fight fraudulent claims ruthlessly! There needs to be the prevailing attitude among your workers that a fake claim for injuries will cause their life to be ruined to the best of your abilities. At the same time, you need to make sure that they are taken care as well as possible, so that they do not become angry at you and make small claims worse than they are.
I hope some of that helps. I could go on a lot longer, but payroll needs to be done!
