Top 10 State-Trade Pairs with Highest Contractor Bond Requirements
PlainHireCheck's ranking of specific state-trade pairs by the bond amount required to obtain a license in that state for that trade. Server-rendered from a live JOIN of the licensing_requirements, states, and trades tables.
Research period:
Research question
Across the 1,020 state-trade licensing pairs in PlainHireCheck's database, which carry the highest bond amounts, and what does that ranking reveal about which combinations of state regulatory regime and trade-risk profile draw the strongest financial-guarantee requirements?
Methodology
Every number on this page is queried from the dataset currently published by PlainHireCheck at the moment you load it, ranked from highest to lowest and limited to the top 10. The figures are not hand-entered into this page, but they are a source snapshot rather than a live verification of every state record.
Values retain the units and precision in PlainHireCheck's published snapshot. Records with a missing or zero value on the ranking metric are excluded rather than shown as artificial zeros.
State contractor licensing boards publish records on their own schedules, and a board may change a requirement after this snapshot was compiled. Use the linked official board to verify a current requirement before acting on it; the methodology page describes the snapshot and its limits.
Outliers are shown as published, not silently smoothed or clipped, so readers can judge them in context via the source link. Where a state changes its licensing categories or reporting scope between updates, we note it on the methodology page rather than blending incompatible vintages into one ranking.
PlainHireCheck maintains an editorial standards process for how rankings are built, how outliers are handled, and how disputed values are corrected. The byline at the top of this page names the editorial owner accountable for its framing. Use the linked official board to independently verify a current requirement. Corrections, takedowns, or clarifications can be requested through the contact channels in the site footer.
Top 10 State-Trade Pairs with Highest Contractor Bond Requirements
Current published dataset; verify requirements with the official board
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the dataset currently published by PlainHireCheck (10 rows shown). Check the official board for changes after this snapshot.
| # | State | Trade | Bond amount | Insurance min | Experience req. | Risk level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | General Contractor | 500000 | 500000 | 0 | high |
| 2 | Florida | General Contractor | 100000 | 1000000 | 4 | high |
| 3 | Nevada | General Contractor | 50000 | 1000000 | 4 | high |
| 4 | Virginia | General Contractor | 50000 | 50000 | 5 | high |
| 5 | District of Columbia | General Contractor | 50000 | 500000 | 3 | high |
| 6 | Arizona | General Contractor | 35000 | 1000000 | 4 | high |
| 7 | Alabama | General Contractor | 25000 | 500000 | 4 | high |
| 8 | California | General Contractor | 25000 | 1000000 | 4 | high |
| 9 | Louisiana | General Contractor | 25000 | 500000 | 3 | high |
| 10 | New Mexico | General Contractor | 25000 | 500000 | 4 | high |
Source: US state contractor licensing boards. Figures are queried from PlainHireCheck's published source snapshot; verify a current requirement with the relevant official board.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is New Jersey, with a value of 500000 on the Bond amount column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. The ranking is generated from the published dataset rather than hand-entered page copy; it does not claim to update when an agency changes its record.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (500000) and the 10th-ranked record (25000) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking are compiled from US state contractor licensing boards. PlainHireCheck serves its published source snapshot through this page; it is not a live agency feed, so the official board remains the source for a current requirement. The methodology page documents the compilation and its limits.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
State-trade bond amounts are those recorded for the named trade's primary license tier in PlainHireCheck's January 2026 compilation snapshot. Specialty endorsements within a trade, for example master electrician versus journeyman, or unlimited general contractor versus residential-only, can carry distinct bond schedules that this ranking consolidates to the primary tier. Bond amount alone does not measure regulatory strictness; some states pair lower nominal bonds with stricter exam requirements, longer experience minimums, or continuing-education obligations. Bond amount also does not measure liability exposure for the contractor, which depends on insurance minimums, the state's lien and warranty laws, and project-specific contractual obligations. Pairs where the snapshot has no bond amount are excluded from this ranking. The snapshot contains no reciprocity-agreement data, so this page cannot determine whether a license transfers between states.
Secondary cut from the same source
State-trade pairs requiring the most documented years of qualifying experience
Sources
- State licensing boards, per-trade bond schedules - https://plainhirecheck.com/methodology