Insurance for coffee shops and snack bars

Coffee shops and snack bars log 2.7 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, 17 percent above private industry's 2.3 and number 24 of 54 trades on this site. A middling injury record means the premium is driven as much by what you do for clients as by what happens to your own crew.

Tailor the checklist

1Coffee shops and snack 2.7 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 54 #24

Total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, 2024: this trade against private industry and the 54 trades on this site. Bars to scale. Source: BLS SOII Table 1.

Recordable cases

2.7

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

1.3

48% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

≈0.2 per 100,000 FTE

Workforce

534,838

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

Burns from hot drinks, slips at the counter and food-borne illness claims from customers; for staff, burns, cuts and repetitive strain.

The checklist for coffee shops and snack bars

GL
General liability
Hot-liquid burns, slips and food-borne illness claims from customers.
Not required by federal law. Required in practice by most contracts, landlords and many state contractor licences.
WC
Workers' compensation
Required once you have employees in nearly every state.
Required by state law in nearly every state once you have employees; the employee-count threshold and exemptions are set state by state and are not reproduced here.
HNOA
Hired and non-owned auto
Staff making deliveries or supply runs in their own cars.
Not required by law; commonly added to GL or auto.
Cyber
Cyber liability
Card payments and loyalty apps hold customer data.
Not required by law; required by some health-care and corporate contracts.

Red tags mark policy types that a law or licence usually requires; green tags are what contracts, landlords and clients ask for. Tailor the list for your situation (no employees, no vehicles, alcohol) with the checklist tool.

What the injury record means for the premium

Coffee shops and snack bars: total recordable cases, cases with days away/restriction/transfer (DART) and cases with days away from work, per 100 FTE, 2024, columns to scale.

At 2.7 cases per 100 workers this trade sits in the middle of the 54 trades here, with 48 percent of cases involving days away, restriction or transfer. The workers' compensation class rate will be noticeable but not dominant; the balance of the premium is general liability and, where the checklist lists it, commercial auto. The approximate fatality rate of 0.2 per 100,000 FTE is unremarkable and will not drive the quote.

The nearest trades by injury rate are glass and glazing contractors (2.7), specialized freight trucking (2.7), poured concrete foundation and structure contractors (2.8); the same payroll insured in those classes would start from a similar workers' comp base.

Legal, licence or contract?

Fixed by law

Workers' compensation once you have employees, in nearly every state (threshold and exemptions set by the state; not reproduced here).
State minimum auto liability on any vehicle the business operates.

Asked for by contracts and licences

Getting quotes. Take this checklist to a broker who writes coffee shops and snack bars — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 2.7-per-100 class rate is doing to the workers' comp figure versus the liability lines. This site does not sell or quote insurance.

Sources: BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Table 1 (2024), incidence rates per 100 full-time workers; BLS SOII Table 3 (2024), hours worked by detailed industry; BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Table A-1 (2024). Fatal rate per 100,000 FTE is derived (count ÷ hours × 200,000,000) and approximate. Checked 2026-10-24.