Insurance for photographers

Photographers log 0.6 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers — 74 percent below private industry's 2.3 and number 52 of 54 trades here. The injury record is not the hard part of insuring this trade; the liability and contract requirements are.

Tailor the checklist

1Photographers 0.6 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 54 #52

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

0.6

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

0.3

50% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

n/a

count not published

Workforce

42,738

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

Damaged or stolen cameras and lenses, trip hazards from equipment at venues, and claims when an event was missed or images lost.

The checklist for photographers

Tools
Inland marine (tools and equipment)
Cameras, lenses and lighting travel with you; a property policy does not follow them.
Not required by law.
GL
General liability
Venues commonly require a certificate; guests trip over stands and cables.
Not required by federal law. Required in practice by most contracts, landlords and many state contractor licences.
E&O
Professional liability (E&O)
Claims over missed shots, lost files or a failed delivery.
Not required by federal law; some state licences and client contracts require it.
HNOA
Hired and non-owned auto
Driving your own car to shoots.
Not required by law; commonly added to GL or auto.

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

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

With 0.6 cases per 100 workers the workers' compensation base rate for this class is comparatively modest, and only 50 percent of cases involved days away, restriction or transfer. Where the premium goes instead is liability: cameras, lenses and lighting travel with you; a property policy does not follow them, and that is a general-liability and professional-liability question rather than a payroll one. Expect the certificate requirements in your contracts to matter more than your loss history.

The nearest trades by injury rate are engineering firms (0.5), architects (0.3), bars and taverns (1.3); 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 photographers — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 0.6-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.