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 pulled live from PlainHireCheck's current dataset at the moment you load it, ranked from highest to lowest and limited to the top 10. Nothing here is a hardcoded or cached figure: when the underlying state contractor and trade licensing per-trade requirements are refreshed, this page reflects the new numbers automatically.
Values are shown in the units and precision published by each state's contractor licensing board. Records with a missing or zero value on the ranking metric are excluded rather than shown as artificial zeros.
State contractor licensing boards publish their state contractor and trade licensing per-trade requirements on their own release schedules; when a board updates its requirements, PlainHireCheck reflects the new figures automatically without any change to this page. If a board later revises a published value, the revision flows through the same way. See the methodology page for the full source vintage and refresh history.
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. Every figure traces back to the original state licensing board record via the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the public source. 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
Live data, updates automatically when the source dataset is refreshed
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects PlainHireCheck's current dataset (10 rows shown). When the source is refreshed, this table updates automatically.
| # | 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, State contractor and trade licensing per-trade requirements. Figures are pulled from PlainHireCheck's current dataset and update automatically when the source is refreshed. US state contractor licensing boards, State contractor and trade licensing per-trade requirements. Figures are pulled from PlainHireCheck's current dataset and update automatically when the source is refreshed.
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. No number on this page is hardcoded, when US state contractor licensing boards publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
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 originate from US state contractor licensing boards, specifically the State contractor and trade licensing per-trade requirements. PlainHireCheck ingests the source vintage published by the agency and serves it from its current dataset, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published source vintage propagates to this page automatically. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and how the figures are compiled.
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 reflect the bond required by the named state's licensing board for the named trade's primary license tier. Specialty endorsements within a trade, for example master electrician versus journeyman, or unlimited general contractor versus residential-only, frequently 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 active continuing-education obligations. Bond amount also does not measure liability exposure for the contractor, that depends on insurance minimums, the state's lien and warranty laws, and project-specific contractual obligations. Pairs where bond is required but the exact amount is not standardized at the state level (for example states that defer the amount to local jurisdictions or to project scope) are excluded from this ranking. Reciprocity arrangements with other states can change the effective bond exposure for cross-state contractors; the ranking shows in-state license requirements only.
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