Michigan Carpenters Council bonds.
From $125.
A carpentry contractor signatory to the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters posts this bond to guarantee the wages and fringe-benefit contributions it owes under its collective bargaining agreement. It is a union obligation, not a Michigan license requirement. Premiums cost 4% of the bond amount plus a $25 fee, $125 minimum.
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How much does a Michigan Carpenters Council bond cost?
4% of the bond amount plus a $25 fee, from $125. Enter your amount in the calculator for the exact price.
Three steps. One sitting.
Signatory paperwork usually has a deadline attached, so this one is built to move: enter the amount, pay, and send the executed bond to the fund office. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your company details, the bond amount your agreement names, an effective date, and the credit consent that authorizes a soft pull. That is the application.
Approved
Most applications approve quickly. The credit consent authorizes a soft inquiry that never affects your score, and no hard inquiry ever runs on this bond.
Send it to the fund office
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to go to the benefit fund office administering the Council's trust funds. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the wage-and-welfare bond actually guarantees
When a carpentry contractor signs an agreement with the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters — itself affiliated with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America — it agrees to pay negotiated hourly wages and fringe-benefit contributions into the Council's multiemployer trust funds for every hour its signatory crews work. Those contributions typically fund health and welfare, pension, and related benefit programs administered on the members' behalf.
Those contributions are not the contractor's money to hold. ERISA § 515, 29 U.S.C. § 1145, makes an employer obligated to contribute to a multiemployer plan under a collectively bargained agreement pay in accordance with that agreement, and 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g)(2) puts real teeth behind a successful collection suit — unpaid contributions, interest, liquidated damages, and the funds' attorney fees and costs.
The bond is how the Council and its funds shorten the gap between hours worked and contributions collected. Rather than chase a contractor after the fact, the trustees hold a surety's promise that a stated sum stands behind the wages and contributions your agreement requires — so member pay and benefit eligibility do not depend on a signatory contractor's cash position in a slow month. It is not insurance for you: if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Keep it continuous for as long as you remain signatory.
You need this bond if you are
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
The premium covers a one-year term from the effective date you choose.
Renew before the expiry date to keep the bond in force: the license, permit or contract it backs expects continuous coverage.
How to file it
Send it to the fund office. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to go to the benefit fund office administering the Council's trust funds. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
What sets the price
The premium is 4% of the bond amount plus a $25 fee, $125 minimum: the amount the obligee sets moves the price, not your business profile.
One soft credit pull, never a hard inquiry, and it never affects your score.
Where a check runs, it decides approval; the rate is the same for everyone approved.
One application, then a quick review.
These are the actual issuing fields. The credit consent authorizes a soft pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Michigan bonds.
Price and requirements checked on the carrier’s application, . Page updated .
Get your signatory bond filed today.
4% of the bond amount plus a $25 fee, $125 minimum, priced at the application. Soft pull only. Free until issued.