Insurance for limited-service restaurants

Limited-service restaurants log 2.6 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, 13 percent above private industry's 2.3 and number 18 of 37 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

1Limited-service restau 2.6 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 37 #18

Total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, 2024: this trade against private industry and the 37 trades on this site. Bars to scale. Source: BLS SOII Table 1.

Recordable cases

2.6

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

38% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

≈2 per 100,000 FTE

Workforce

2,818,284

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

The same kitchen injuries at higher throughput, plus delivery-driver exposure where the restaurant runs its own vehicles.

The checklist for limited-service restaurants

GL
General liability
Slips, burns and food-borne illness claims.
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 running errands or deliveries in their own cars.
Not required by law; commonly added to GL or auto.
Auto
Commercial auto liability
Delivery vehicles if you own them.
State minimum auto liability applies to business vehicles. Interstate for-hire carriers of vehicles 10,001 lb GVWR and up must carry the 49 CFR 387.9 minimums ($750,000 non-hazardous property; $1,000,000 oil; $5,000,000 bulk hazmat).

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

Limited-service restaurants: 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 2.6 cases per 100 workers this trade sits in the middle of the 37 trades here, with 38 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 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), residential building construction (2.5), janitorial services (2.5); 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.
Liquor liability, where the state liquor licence requires it.

Asked for by contracts and licences

Getting quotes. Take this checklist to a broker who writes limited-service restaurants — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 2.6-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 2026-10-23.