A compiled reference of 53 verified statistics on restaurant worker injuries: how many happen, the slip-trip-fall share, cuts and burns, how front-of-house and back-of-house jobs get hurt differently, what a claim costs, and what federal OSHA cites restaurants for. Every figure is drawn from a named public source (the Bureau of Labor Statistics injury tables, OSHA enforcement data, the AmTrust, Travelers, Marsh and Liberty Mutual claims reports, Society Insurance, NEXT Insurance, and state burn surveillance) and independently checked before publishing. A closing section traces the famous numbers that circulate without a source.
Key statistics
7 highlights from this report
Key statistics
Key takeaways
Restaurants injure workers at about the national rate, but the mix is different: far more cuts and burns, a large slip-and-fall share, and most of the money in a few strains, fractures and back injuries. The back of house gets cut and burned; the front of house falls.
Falls, slips and trips cause 31% of restaurant injuries that keep a worker home.
178,200 restaurant and bar injuries and illnesses were reported in 2024.
Cuts are the most common claim at $1,798 each; strains cost $10,672.
Full-service restaurant workers were burned at nearly 7 times the all-industry rate in 2019.
Cooks are injured at twice the rate of servers: 93.8 vs 46.4 per 10,000.
First-year employees account for 51% of restaurant workers' comp claims in Travelers' data.
Federal OSHA cited restaurants 310 times in fiscal 2025, for $1.02 million.
How we built this report
Every figure was compiled in September 2026 from named public sources and checked against the original document before publishing.
- Compiled from primary sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics injury and illness tables (industry, event, nature, occupation and days-away tables for 2019 and 2023-2024), OSHA's frequently-cited-standards database for NAICS 722, insurer claims reports (AmTrust, Travelers, Marsh, Liberty Mutual, Society Insurance, NEXT Insurance), and state burn surveillance from Oklahoma and Michigan.
- Only explicitly stated figures
We include only numbers a named source states directly, attributed inline where they appear. Where we divide two published figures to get a share, we say so and show both numbers.
- Disagreements shown, not averaged
Insurer claim averages differ by carrier and by claim type. We show each on its own terms rather than blending them into one number.
- Independent review
Written by one co-founder, reviewed by the other before publishing.
Scope caveat: BLS counts are employer-reported cases from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses; they cover workers, not customers, and the 2023-2024 case detail tables are two-year combined totals with annualized rates. Insurer figures describe each carrier's own book of business, not the whole industry. Customer slip-and-fall data is thin everywhere; we report what insurers have published and flag what we could not trace.
Restaurant injuries, by the numbers
All 53 figures, grouped by theme, each from a named public source and independently verified.
How many restaurant workers get hurt
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 injury and illness tables (bls.gov), employers in food services and drinking places (NAICS 722) reported 178,200 nonfatal injuries and illnesses, a rate of 2.4 cases per 100 full-time workers against 2.3 for all private industry. Limited-service restaurants run a higher rate (2.6) than full-service restaurants (2.2). The same agency counted 144 workplace deaths in the sector in 2024. According to OSHA's young worker restaurant safety eTool (osha.gov), the industry employs 11.6 million people and nearly 30% of them are under 20.
Statistic 1
Food services and drinking places employers reported 178,200 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2024.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table 2 (2024)
Statistic 2
54,400 restaurant-and-bar injury cases in 2024 involved days away from work, and 74,600 involved days away, restriction, or transfer.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table 2 (2024)
Statistic 3
Restaurants and other eating places (NAICS 7225) reported 161,200 recordable injuries and illnesses in 2024, including 71,600 in full-service restaurants and 74,500 in limited-service restaurants.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table 2 (2024)
Statistic 4
The injury and illness rate in food services and drinking places was 2.4 cases per 100 full-time workers in 2024, against 2.3 for all private industry.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table 1 (2024)
Statistic 5
Limited-service restaurants had a higher injury rate (2.6 per 100 full-time workers) than full-service restaurants (2.2) in 2024.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table 1 (2024)
Statistic 6
144 workers in food services and drinking places died on the job in 2024, after 145 in 2023.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Industries at a Glance (2024)
Statistic 7
Full-service restaurants recorded 93,800 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2019, and about one-third required at least one day away from work.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily (2020)
Statistic 8
Restaurants and other eating and drinking businesses employ 11.6 million people, and nearly 30% of them are under 20 years old.
OSHA, young worker restaurant safety eTool
Statistic 9
Overexertion, repetitive motion and bodily conditions, the BLS category for lifting and strain injuries, caused 14,540 days-away injuries in food services and drinking places over 2023 and 2024, 13% of the total.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R4 (2023-2024)
What this means: Restaurants are not an outlier on the headline rate. They are an outlier on who gets hurt (young and new to the job) and how (cuts, burns and floors rather than machinery). That shapes what a manager should be inspecting: floors, mats, footwear and knife and fryer practice, on every shift, not once a year.
Slips, trips and falls
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2023-2024 event tables (bls.gov) put falls, slips and trips at 34,460 of 109,680 days-away injuries in food services and drinking places, 31%, with 28,450 of those on the same level. The sector's same-level fall rate (19.5 per 10,000 full-time workers) runs well above the all-industry 14.7. According to Marsh's 2024 restaurant loss report (marsh.com), the share of losses from slip, trip and fall claims rose 5%, and these claims are significantly more severe than others. According to the Travelers 2026 Injury Impact Report (travelers.com), slips, trips and falls are among the leading causes of claims exceeding $250,000 in every industry it studied. Liberty Mutual's 2025 Workplace Safety Index (libertymutualgroup.com) prices same-level falls at $10.5 billion a year across all U.S. employers.
Statistic 10
Falls, slips and trips caused 34,460 of the 109,680 days-away-from-work injuries in food services and drinking places over 2023 and 2024 combined, or 31%.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R4 (2023-2024)
Statistic 11
Same-level slips, trips and falls alone accounted for 28,450 days-away cases in food services and drinking places over 2023 and 2024, about one in four.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R4 (2023-2024)
Statistic 12
The annualized days-away rate for same-level slips, trips and falls in food services and drinking places was 19.5 per 10,000 full-time workers in 2023-2024, versus 14.7 across all private industry.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R8 (2023-2024)
Statistic 13
Limited-service restaurants had a higher falls, slips and trips rate (25.0 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers) than full-service restaurants (19.6) in 2023-2024.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R8 (2023-2024)
Statistic 14
Marsh's 2024 restaurant loss report found a 5% increase in the share of losses coming from slip, trip and fall claims, and companies with mandatory non-slip footwear policies reported lower claim percentages for these incidents.
Marsh, Restaurant Loss Cost Trends report (2024)
Statistic 15
In Marsh's restaurant claims data for 2021, falls, slips and trips caused 22% of injuries to workers aged 35 and over but 15% of injuries to younger workers.
Marsh restaurant loss data, reported by Insurance Journal (2023)
Statistic 16
Slips, trips and falls are among the leading causes of workers' comp claims exceeding $250,000 in every industry Travelers analyzed, and for workers 60 and older they cause about 39% of claims.
Travelers, Injury Impact Report (2026)
Statistic 17
Falls on the same level are the second most costly cause of serious workplace injury in the U.S., at $10.5 billion a year.
Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (2025), reported by Carrier Management
Statistic 18
Society Insurance says slips, trips and falls make up an estimated 12% to 15% of workers' compensation claims, and the average workplace slip costs around $20,000 to pay out and $50,000 to defend.
Society Insurance, slip and fall safety guidance
Statistic 19
Slip, trip and fall claims are the largest single claim type by both frequency and total cost for Society Insurance's restaurant, bar and grocery customers.
Society Insurance, slip and fall liability guidance
Statistic 20
In a Liberty Mutual field study of fast-food kitchens, workers rated the back vat, sink, fry vat and oven areas as significantly more slippery than front-of-house areas, and only 30% wore employer-designated slip-resistant shoes.
Chang et al., Professional Safety journal (2006)
What this means: A third of the injuries that take a restaurant worker off the schedule start on the floor, and the fix is unglamorous: dry floors, beveled mats, and shoes that grip. The Marsh footwear finding is the one to act on, and floor and mat condition is exactly the kind of thing a dated shift photo proves or disproves later. Retail stores show the same pattern in our retail slip and fall statistics, and hotels in our hotel safety and compliance statistics.
Cuts and burns
The kitchen's signature injuries are the ones other industries barely see. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov), full-service restaurant workers were cut at 23.6 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2019 against 7.1 for all private industry, and burned at 10.2 against 1.5. According to AmTrust's 2024 Restaurant Risk Report (amtrustfinancial.com), which analyzed its 2018-2023 restaurant workers' comp claims, cuts were the most common claim (31,938, averaging $1,798) and burns the second (13,331, averaging $4,326). State burn registries show what a bad kitchen burn looks like: in Oklahoma's burn-center surveillance (oklahoma.gov), hot grease caused 52% of the 104 restaurant worker burns hospitalized from 1988 to 2006, and in Michigan's surveillance (msu.edu), most food service burn victims were 24 or younger.
The injury ledger: how often, and how much
AmTrust restaurant workers' compensation claims, 2018 to 2023. The most frequent injuries are the cheapest; the expensive ones are rare.
Source: AmTrust Financial, 2024 Restaurant Risk Report (amtrustfinancial.com). Bars are scaled to the largest value in each column. Disc, vertebrae and spinal cord injuries average $60,609 to $85,130 but make up about 1% of claims and are not shown.
Statistic 21
Full-service restaurant workers suffered 8,110 cuts and lacerations that kept them home from work in 2019, a rate of 23.6 per 10,000 full-time workers against 7.1 for all private industry.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily (2020)
Statistic 22
Heat burns in full-service restaurants occurred at 10.2 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2019, nearly seven times the all-industry rate of 1.5.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily (2020)
Statistic 23
Contact with objects and equipment (the category that holds knife and equipment cuts) caused 40,540 days-away injuries in food services and drinking places over 2023 and 2024, 37% of the total.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R4 (2023-2024)
Statistic 24
Cuts, punctures and scrapes were the most common restaurant workers' comp claim in AmTrust's 2018-2023 data, with 31,938 claims averaging $1,798 each.
AmTrust Financial, Restaurant Risk Report (2024)
Statistic 25
Burns were the second most common restaurant claim in AmTrust's data: 13,331 claims averaging $4,326 each.
AmTrust Financial, Restaurant Risk Report (2024)
Statistic 26
Fingers are the most injured body part in restaurants (20,660 AmTrust claims, $2,164 average), followed by multiple body parts (13,243 claims, $12,149 average) and hands (12,051 claims, $3,733 average).
AmTrust Financial, Restaurant Risk Report (2024)
Statistic 27
Of 104 restaurant and food service workers hospitalized in Oklahoma burn centers for work burns from 1988 to 2006, just over half (52%) were burned by hot grease and 23% by hot liquids.
Oklahoma State Department of Health, injury update (2009)
Statistic 28
In Michigan from 2009 to 2013, 2,127 food service workers, including 814 fast-food workers, were hospitalized or treated in an emergency room for a work-related burn, 24.3% of all work-related burns in the state.
Michigan State University OEM, food service hazard alert (2016)
Statistic 29
Most food service burn victims in Michigan were young: 53.6% of food service burns and 63.0% of fast-food burns were to workers 24 or younger.
Michigan State University OEM, food service hazard alert (2016)
What this means: Cuts are a volume problem and burns a severity problem, and both cluster around two stations: the prep line and the fryer. Grease is the common thread, causing half of hospitalized burns in Oklahoma's registry and, as the slip data shows, the slick floor around the vat. Fryer oil handling and hood and grease condition belong on the same checklist; see our restaurant fire and hood cleaning statistics for the fire side of the same hazard.
Front of house vs back of house
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes injury rates by occupation (bls.gov), and the split is sharp. Restaurant cooks were injured at an annualized 93.8 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2023-2024, double the 46.4 for waiters and waitresses. But the kinds of injury reverse: falls, slips and trips make up nearly half of servers' injuries and more than half of hosts', while cooks are mostly hurt by contact with objects and equipment, with cut rates of 29.7 and burn rates of 17.2 per 10,000 against 8.8 and 2.1 for servers. Dishwashers and food preparation workers carry the highest total rates of any restaurant job. Restaurant days-away cases are also shorter: the median was 5 days in full-service and 4 in limited-service restaurants against 8 for all private industry.
Who gets hurt how: injury rate by job, split by cause
Annualized days-away-from-work injury rate per 10,000 full-time workers, 2023-2024, by occupation. Bar length is the total rate; segments show falls, slips and trips versus contact with objects and equipment (cuts, struck-by, caught-in) versus everything else.
Front of house
Back of house
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII case and demographic Table R100, 2023-2024 (bls.gov). Bars scaled to the highest rate shown (259.5). The all private industry rate is 86.6. Percentages are the share of each job's total rate, computed from the published columns.
Statistic 30
Restaurant cooks had an annualized days-away injury rate of 93.8 per 10,000 full-time workers in 2023-2024, double the 46.4 rate for waiters and waitresses.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R100 (2023-2024)
Statistic 31
Falls, slips and trips make up nearly half of servers' days-away injuries (21.9 of a 46.4 rate) and over half of hosts' (24.3 of 44.9), but about one fifth of restaurant cooks' (19.4 of 93.8).
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R100 (2023-2024)
Statistic 32
Contact with objects and equipment drives kitchen injuries: an annualized 41.2 days-away cases per 10,000 restaurant cooks and 58.7 per 10,000 dishwashers, against 13.0 for servers.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R100 (2023-2024)
Statistic 33
Restaurant cooks suffer cuts at 29.7 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers and thermal burns at 17.2, versus 8.8 and 2.1 for waiters and waitresses.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R98 (2023-2024)
Statistic 34
Chefs and head cooks are cut at 50.5 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers and dishwashers at 37.7, both well above the 20.6 rate for all food preparation and serving occupations.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R98 (2023-2024)
Statistic 35
Bartenders break bones at 10.5 fracture cases per 10,000 full-time workers, about double the 4.8 rate for waiters and waitresses, and get cut at 19.3 per 10,000.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R98 (2023-2024)
Statistic 36
Full-service restaurant workers stayed home a median of 5 days per days-away injury in 2023-2024 and limited-service workers 4 days, against a median of 8 for all private industry.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOII Table R65 (2023-2024)
What this means: Two different safety programs live in one building. The dining room's problem is floors: spills, transitions and traffic. The kitchen's problem is hands: knives, slicers, fryers and hot pans. A walk-through that checks mats and wet-floor signs but never opens the knife drawer or looks at the fryer station is inspecting half the restaurant.
What the claims cost
Frequency and cost point in opposite directions. In AmTrust's 2024 report (amtrustfinancial.com), strains averaged $10,672 a claim, nearly 500% more than a cut, and disc injuries averaged $85,130 while making up about 1% of claims. According to Marsh's restaurant loss data, reported by Insurance Journal (insurancejournal.com), the average food service workers' comp claim cost $4,474 in 2021 and the average lost-time claim $18,345, and workers with under two years of experience produced 62.8% of claim costs. According to Travelers (travelers.com), first-year employees account for 51% of the restaurant workers' comp claims it analyzed, the highest share of any industry in its book. On the customer side, NEXT Insurance's 2021-2024 small-restaurant data (nextinsurance.com) puts the average claim at about $9,000 and slip and fall among the four most expensive claim types. Insurance Journal's write-up of the same data (insurancejournal.com) lists customer slip and fall among the five most frequent claims.
Statistic 37
Strains are the costliest common restaurant injury in AmTrust's data: 10,694 claims averaging $10,672, nearly 500% more expensive than a cut.
AmTrust Financial, Restaurant Risk Report (2024)
Statistic 38
Fractures carry the highest average restaurant claim cost of any common injury at $22,837 (3,919 AmTrust claims), while disc injuries average $85,130, vertebrae injuries $67,362, and spinal cord injuries $60,609.
AmTrust Financial, Restaurant Risk Report (2024)
Statistic 39
In AmTrust's earlier 2013-2017 restaurant claims, slips and falls produced 4.5 times more paid losses than cuts, punctures or scrapes, even though cuts made up a third of claims.
AmTrust Financial, Restaurant Risk Report trends (2013-2017 claims)
Statistic 40
Falls and slips cost AmTrust $198.4 million in paid restaurant claims from 2013 to 2017, and injured restaurant workers missed an average of 30 days of work.
AmTrust report, reported by Insurance Business America
Statistic 41
The average food service workers' compensation claim cost $4,474 in 2021, and the average lost-time claim $18,345.
Marsh restaurant loss data, reported by Insurance Journal (2023)
Statistic 42
The average litigated restaurant general liability claim rose from $18,000 to $20,000 in 2017-2019 to $30,000 to $32,000 in 2020 and 2021.
Marsh restaurant loss data, reported by Insurance Journal (2023)
Statistic 43
Restaurant workers with less than two years of experience account for 55.2% of incurred losses and 62.8% of claim costs, and teenagers' share of reported claims rose from 11% in 2017 to 20% in 2021.
Marsh restaurant loss data, reported by Insurance Journal (2023)
Statistic 44
First-year employees account for 51% of restaurant workers' comp injuries, the highest share of any industry in Travelers' 1.2 million claim analysis.
Travelers, Injury Impact Report (2026)
Statistic 45
Restaurant losses from claims over $100,000 rose 10% between 2022 and 2023 due to social inflation, and the rate of claims converting to litigation doubled.
Marsh, Restaurant Loss Cost Trends report (2024)
Statistic 46
Restaurants that require in-person and ongoing safety training saw 5% to 10% lower claim frequency and severity.
Marsh, Restaurant Loss Cost Trends report (2024)
Statistic 47
Slip and fall was one of the four most expensive small-restaurant insurance claim types from 2021 to 2024, and the average restaurant claim totaled about $9,000, with fine dining claims nearly double that.
NEXT Insurance, restaurant claims report (2021-2024 data)
Statistic 48
The National Safety Council puts the cost of a medically consulted work injury at $48,000 in 2024.
National Safety Council, Injury Facts (2024)
What this means: The cost curve is driven by the rare claim, not the common one, and the rare claim is disproportionately a new hire who fell or lifted wrong. Marsh's finding that ongoing in-person training cuts frequency and severity 5% to 10% is the clearest return on investment in this dataset. On the liability side, Marsh's doubling of litigation conversion and its $30,000-plus litigated claim average are the numbers to hold against the cost of documenting floor condition on every shift.
What OSHA cites restaurants for
According to OSHA's frequently-cited-standards database (osha.gov), federal OSHA issued 310 citations in 134 inspections of food services and drinking places in fiscal 2025, with $1,018,802 in current penalties. Hazard Communication led with 60 citations, followed by personal protective equipment and electrical general requirements (25 each) and walking-working surfaces (22). The pattern mirrors the injury data: chemicals, hands, and floors. State-plan states run their own inspections, so these federal figures understate national enforcement.
Statistic 49
Federal OSHA issued 310 citations in 134 inspections of food services and drinking places in fiscal 2025 (October 2024 through September 2025), with $1,018,802 in current penalties.
OSHA, frequently cited standards for NAICS 722 (FY2025)
Statistic 50
Hazard Communication (29 CFR 1910.1200) was the most cited standard in restaurants in fiscal 2025: 60 citations in 34 inspections, $122,393 in penalties.
OSHA, frequently cited standards for NAICS 722 (FY2025)
Statistic 51
Walking-working surfaces (29 CFR 1910.22), the slip and fall standard, drew 22 restaurant citations and $66,929 in penalties in fiscal 2025.
OSHA, frequently cited standards for NAICS 722 (FY2025)
Statistic 52
Hand protection (29 CFR 1910.138) produced 11 restaurant citations and $61,072 in penalties in fiscal 2025, and the General Duty Clause 10 citations and $84,850.
OSHA, frequently cited standards for NAICS 722 (FY2025)
Statistic 53
Personal protective equipment general requirements (25 citations, $89,680), electrical general requirements (25, $62,137), portable fire extinguishers (20, $39,996) and exit route maintenance (17, $56,431) round out the top restaurant citations in fiscal 2025.
OSHA, frequently cited standards for NAICS 722 (FY2025)
What this means: 134 federal inspections with citations against hundreds of thousands of eating places means OSHA is almost never in the building; the health inspector is (see our restaurant health inspection statistics). The citation list is still a useful self-audit: chemical labeling, cut gloves, blocked exits, extinguisher tags and floor condition are all things a photo can prove on a given date.
Claims we could not verify
Several restaurant slip-and-fall numbers are repeated on hundreds of law-firm, flooring and insurance pages. We traced each to the earliest document we could find. None of these are Statistic-N cards above, and we suggest not citing them as fact.
Traced, not verified"Nearly 11,000 slip and falls occur each day in America's restaurants"
The number is arithmetic on a 2003 National Floor Safety Institute best-practices document (nfsi.org), which states that "more than 3 million foodservice employees and 1 million guests" are injured in slip and falls each year and that the industry spends "more than $2 billion" on them, "rising by 10% every year." Four million divided by 365 is about 10,960 a day. The NFSI document gives no data source, method or year for any of the three figures, and the "every day" version is carried by a restaurant expert-witness blog (restaurantexpertwitness.com), which correctly cites the NFSI total as its source.
For scale: the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 178,200 recordable injuries and illnesses of every kind in food services and drinking places in 2024. The NFSI employee figure alone is roughly 17 times that.
Unsourced"The average quick-service restaurant slip-and-fall claim costs $5,800"
First appears in a December 2016 contributed column in QSR Magazine (qsrmagazine.com) contributed by a Restaurant Technologies executive; contributed columns are opinion pieces, and this one cites no source for the $5,800, nor for its companion claims that "60 percent of BOH workers' compensation claims are linked to cooking oil" and that a quick-service restaurant would have to sell 3,000 meals to cover the average claim. We found no insurer or association data behind any of the three.
Unsourced"Slips, trips and falls are 39% of restaurant general liability claims" and "the average restaurant GL slip claim is $3,550"
Both circulate on law-firm and insurance-marketing pages. The expert-witness blog that carries the $3,550 figure attributes it to a 2020 author surname with no publication. We found no insurer, broker or association report containing either number. The closest verified figures are Marsh's litigated general liability claim average of $30,000 to $32,000 (Statistic 42) and NEXT Insurance's $9,000 average restaurant claim (Statistic 47).
Attribution not found"The CDC estimates an average cost of $30,000 to $50,000 for slip and fall claims"
Cited on a claims-analytics blog (claraanalytics.com). The CDC publishes medical cost estimates for falls among older adults, not insurance claim costs, and we found no CDC publication with this range.
Estimate, no method"24% of foodservice slip-and-fall accidents are caused by improper footwear" and "75% of work-related slips and falls can be prevented with floor maintenance and slip-resistant shoes"
Both come from the same 2003 NFSI document, worded as "it has been estimated" and "can reduce as much as." They are plausible and widely repeated, but they are estimates without a stated basis. Marsh's 2024 finding that mandatory non-slip footwear policies correlate with lower slip claim percentages (Statistic 14) is the measured version of the same idea.
What this means: The most-repeated restaurant slip-and-fall numbers rest on one 23-year-old unsourced estimate. If you need a defensible number, use the BLS event tables (31% of days-away injuries, 28,450 same-level falls over two years) or an insurer's own book (Society, Marsh, AmTrust, Travelers), and say which.
Cite this study
Academic or press use: copy a ready-made reference. RapidEye is the publisher.
Quick FAQ
What percentage of restaurant injuries are slips, trips and falls?
About 31%. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2023 and 2024 combined shows falls, slips and trips caused 34,460 of the 109,680 days-away-from-work injuries in food services and drinking places. Same-level slips, trips and falls alone were 28,450 cases, about one in four. Insurer figures are lower because they count all claims, not just days-away cases: Marsh's 2021 restaurant data shows falls, slips and trips caused 22% of injuries to workers 35 and over and 15% to younger workers, and Society Insurance estimates 12% to 15% of workers' compensation claims across its book.
How many restaurant workers are injured each year?
Employers in food services and drinking places reported 178,200 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 54,400 of those cases kept the worker away from work for at least a day. The injury rate was 2.4 cases per 100 full-time workers, slightly above the 2.3 rate for all private industry. 144 restaurant and bar workers died on the job in 2024.
What is the most common injury in a restaurant kitchen?
Cuts. In AmTrust's 2024 Restaurant Risk Report, cuts, punctures and scrapes were the most common workers' compensation claim (31,938 claims, $1,798 average), followed by burns (13,331 claims, $4,326 average) and strains (10,694 claims, $10,672 average). Bureau of Labor Statistics data agrees: full-service restaurant workers were cut at 23.6 days-away cases per 10,000 full-time workers in 2019, more than three times the all-industry rate of 7.1, and restaurant cooks are cut at 29.7 per 10,000 against 8.8 for servers.
How much does a restaurant slip and fall claim cost?
It depends on who fell and whether it is a workers' comp or a customer liability claim. Society Insurance says the average workplace slip costs around $20,000 to pay out and $50,000 to defend. Marsh's restaurant data puts the average food service workers' comp claim at $4,474 in 2021 and the average lost-time claim at $18,345, and the average litigated general liability claim at $30,000 to $32,000 in 2020 and 2021. NEXT Insurance data for 2021 to 2024 puts the average small-restaurant insurance claim at about $9,000 and lists slip and fall among the four most expensive claim types. Travelers reports slips, trips and falls are among the leading causes of workers' comp claims exceeding $250,000.
Is it true that 11,000 slip and falls happen in restaurants every day?
The number cannot be verified. It is arithmetic on a 2003 National Floor Safety Institute estimate that more than 3 million food service employees and 1 million guests are injured in slip and falls each year: 4 million divided by 365 is about 11,000 a day. The NFSI document gives no methodology or data year. For comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 178,200 recordable restaurant and bar injuries and illnesses of all types in 2024, so the 3 million employee figure is roughly 17 times all recorded restaurant injuries combined.
Data sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these named public sources, each checked against the original document before publishing. Sources are named at the publisher level and are not linked.
Bureau of Labor StatisticsSurvey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses industry, event, nature, occupation and days-away tables (2019, 2023-2024, 2024); fatality countsbls.gov
OSHAFrequently cited standards database for NAICS 722 (fiscal 2025); young worker restaurant safety eToolosha.gov
AmTrust FinancialRestaurant Risk Report, 2024 edition (2018-2023 claims) and earlier trends page (2013-2017 claims); hosted copy of the NFSI restaurant slip-and-fall programamtrustfinancial.com
Travelers2026 Injury Impact Report press release (1.2 million claims, 2021-2025)travelers.com
Marsh2024 Restaurant Loss Cost Trends report key findingsmarsh.com
Insurance JournalCoverage of Marsh's 2022 restaurant loss cost report (2023) and of NEXT Insurance restaurant claims data (2024)insurancejournal.com
Liberty Mutual2025 Workplace Safety Index (falls-on-same-level cost figure, as reported by Carrier Management)libertymutualgroup.com
Carrier ManagementCoverage of the 2025 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Indexcarriermanagement.com
Society InsuranceSlip, trip and fall safety and liability guidance for restaurantssocietyinsurance.com
NEXT InsuranceRestaurant insurance claims report, January 2021 to July 2024 datanextinsurance.com
Insurance Business AmericaCoverage of the AmTrust Restaurant Risk Report (2013-2017 claims)insurancebusinessmag.com
CDC StacksArchive host for the Oklahoma restaurant burn reports (2009) and the Liberty Mutual fast-food kitchen slip study (Professional Safety, 2006)cdc.gov
Oklahoma State Department of HealthInjury Prevention Service updates on work-related burns among restaurant workers, 1988-2006oklahoma.gov
Michigan State UniversityOccupational and Environmental Medicine food service burn hazard alert (2016)msu.edu
National Safety CouncilInjury Facts work injury cost estimates (2024)nsc.org
National Floor Safety InstituteRestaurant slip-and-fall prevention best-practices document (2003), examined in the unverified-claims sectionnfsi.org
QSR MagazineContributed vendor column (2016), examined in the unverified-claims sectionqsrmagazine.com
Restaurant Expert WitnessBlog posts carrying the 11,000-a-day and $3,550 claims, examined in the unverified-claims sectionrestaurantexpertwitness.com
CLARA AnalyticsBlog post citing a CDC claim-cost range we could not locate, examined in the unverified-claims sectionclaraanalytics.com