Michigan Workers' Comp Insurance for Restaurants & Food Service

Michigan's threshold has two paths: a private employer must carry coverage if it regularly employs one or more workers who work 35 or more hours per week for 13 or more consecutive weeks, or if it has three or more employees at any time regardless of hours. Agricultural employers follow the 35-hour/13-week test with three or more employees, and household employers must cover domestic workers who work 35+ hours per week for 13+ weeks. All public employers must carry coverage regardless of size. See the Workers' Disability Compensation Agency's insurance requirements page.

Common codes for this work include 9082 Restaurant (Full-Service); 9083 Fast Food Restaurant; 9084 Bar / Nightclub; 2003 Bakery; 9058 Hotel Restaurant Employees. Michigan maintains its own classification system (CAOM) rather than NCCI codes. The codes below are NCCI reference codes; your Michigan classification may carry a different number, and we match it during quoting.

A sole proprietor is never considered an employee of their own business, so they are not automatically covered and coverage on themselves is optional. Partners are considered employees of the partnership, corporate officers are considered employees of the corporation, and LLC manager-members are considered employees of the LLC, meaning all three groups are counted toward the coverage threshold and are covered by default unless they properly file an exclusion form. Employers can meet the coverage requirement by purchasing insurance, self-insuring, or filing a valid exclusion, and should keep exclusion paperwork current since it's specific to the individual and the entity.

Michigan's Worker's Disability Compensation Act makes it a misdemeanor for a covered employer to fail to secure required coverage, and the state can pursue both criminal prosecution and civil remedies to collect owed compensation and penalties from a noncompliant employer (MCL 418.641). An uninsured employer also loses the liability protections the Act normally provides and can be sued directly and held personally liable for a workplace injury.

Price is driven by payroll in each class code, the Michigan rates filed for those codes, your claims history (experience modification), and underwriting factors such as total payroll by role (kitchen vs. front-of-house vs. clerical); service style — full-service dining, fast food, or bar/nightclub; whether alcohol is served and how late the location operates. We compare carriers so you can see what you qualify for.

Complete one application and we compare up to 10 carriers in minutes, with the option to purchase online. A Live Certificate is included with your coverage, so proof of coverage is always live and shareable by text or email in seconds.

They're generally rated under the applicable restaurant or bar classification for that location, which already accounts for the mix of front-of-house and kitchen labor. Purely clerical staff working in a separate office, such as a corporate bookkeeper for a restaurant group, may qualify for a separate lower-rated clerical code if their payroll is tracked separately.

Workers' comp covers the injury itself regardless of fault, but a vehicle accident also raises auto liability questions that a commercial auto policy is built to address. Restaurants that use their own delivery drivers should carry commercial auto coverage alongside workers' comp rather than relying on workers' comp alone.

Fast-food and full-service restaurants are classified separately because the pace, equipment, and staffing mix differ, which changes the expected injury pattern that carriers price against. A single owner running both formats will typically have payroll reported under both codes.

Coverage is required once an employer has three or more employees at any time, or one or more employees working 35+ hours per week for 13 or more consecutive weeks, whichever applies first.

No. A sole proprietor is never considered an employee of their own business, so coverage on the owner is optional, though employees they hire still count toward the threshold.