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I don't know the WC differences between corporations and sole proprietorships. If that's what makes the difference, and I have no idea why it would, but making the change to a corporation would be worth the savings.

In Calif, you must pay a MINIMUM state corp income tax of $800, whether you made ANY money in the fiscal year or not.Right off the top for incorporating.

If sole proprietorship, you can take your "income" out of the business with "DRAWS", and no matching soc sec/medicare taxes, nor fed and state unemployment ins taxes. The owner then pays ALL of the soc sec/med, but never pays fed of state unemployment taxes on his draws. You can be a sole prop and have employees on the payroll, which would have the usual tax deductions applied, along with the unemployment taxes on the employees only, not on the draws.
If incopr, the corp become the new "ENTITY". The owner(s) must then go on payroll and have the usual deductions and also the unemployment taxes.
In both cases, workmen's comp ins applies to the GROSS PAYROLL. This includes all sick time, vacation, holiday, etc. If a sole prop taking a draw, their draw IS NOT included in the "gross payroll" for the w.Comp ins premium calculations. So if owner is taking a gross salary of $60,000, which is far from alot for a small business, you have just added $80,000 X the rate for your category of job. If rate is $4.00 per $100 of gross payroll, you just added $3200 to a lower bottom line.
Most policies in Calif exempt the officers of the company from w/Comp because then you have a conflict of interest: The employee (owner) gets injured, and the paperwork on the claim goes to the owner (officer) to validate the claim. Leaves a person testifying for or against himself all at the same time, and I don't know how the 5th amendment would apply ....