For fast casual restaurant workers comp, California publishes one title for fast food or fast casual restaurants: guests order at a counter, kiosk, drive-through or app, pay when they order and seat themselves. Full table service points to the full-service title, and cold-food, coffee and frozen yogurt shops have titles of their own. In Arizona and Nevada, the carrier classifies restaurants under NCCI.
A counter-service unit runs on line cooks, prep cooks, cashiers and expo staff rather than servers, so more of its payroll is hourly wages and less arrives as tips. In California, the way guests order and pay also decides which published restaurant title describes the location, which makes the ordering model a workers comp question and not just a design choice. The workers comp for restaurants hub sets every format side by side for all three states.
The WCIRB's published wording for 9083, the fast food or fast casual title, describes a restaurant where customers order at a counter, through a drive-through window, at a kiosk or in a web-based app, pay at the time they order and seat themselves. When staff greet and seat guests, take orders at the table and collect payment after the meal, the wording points instead to the full-service title discussed under full service restaurant workers comp. Both titles speak to each separate and distinct restaurant, which means a group's locations get looked at one by one.
The published wording allows limited table service: bringing paid orders to tables, refilling drinks and clearing tables. A number on a stand, a runner with a tray and a busser wiping tables between rushes all fit that description. What moves a location toward the full-service wording is the rest of the sequence: someone seats guests, takes the order at the table and collects payment once the meal is done. A weekend brunch with a host stand and table orders is the kind of change to describe to the carrier, which decides the title from how the location actually runs. Owner waivers, staff meals and the rest of a California audit are on the workers comp for restaurants in California page.
| Topic | California | Arizona | Nevada |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides the classification | The carrier, reading the WCIRB's published titles | The carrier, under NCCI classifications | The carrier, under NCCI classifications |
| Counter or table test | Published wording: order at a counter, kiosk, drive-through or app, pay at order, seat yourself | No California test applies; ask the carrier | No California test applies; ask the carrier |
| Cold food, coffee and frozen yogurt | Separate published shop titles where no hot food or alcohol is prepared or served | Ask the carrier | Ask the carrier |
| Tips | Left out of payroll | Ask the carrier how tips are counted | Reported tips of $20 or more a month count at the wage rate |
Arizona and Nevada restaurants sit in NCCI's classification system instead, where a California title number has no standing. Read your classification on the policy declarations; NCCI's Class Look-Up shows the wording online for free after signing in with an NCCI account, and this site doesn't republish NCCI codes. Nevada calls the coverage industrial insurance; the restaurant workers comp in Nevada page covers its tip rule and per-employee payroll limit. For Arizona's owner rules, start at Arizona workers comp for contractors and restaurants.
The panel shows the published classifications that mention this work in California: the fast food or fast casual title, the full-service title and the catch-all title. Shops selling cold food, prepared nonalcoholic drinks or single servings of ice cream or frozen yogurt have a separate group, 8078(1), 8078(2), 8078(3). Classification depends on each location's actual operations and the carrier's determination; no code is assigned or confirmed here.
Published classifications that mention this work
The line between the shop titles and the restaurant titles is hot food and alcohol. The shop wording applies where 50% or more of gross receipts come from cold food, prepared drinks or frozen desserts and no hot food or alcoholic drinks are prepared or poured and served. A shop selling a mix goes by the category with the highest share of sales. Add a panini press, a soup well or a beer tap and the wording may point back to a restaurant title. A restaurant that brews beer and sells most of it on site typically stays with the restaurant wording; when most of it sells elsewhere, the California taproom workers comp page takes over. The rest of the titles the site tracks sit in California workers comp classifications by trade.
For policies from September 1, 2026, the WCIRB's approved advisory pure premium rate for the fast food or fast casual title is $2.784 per $100 of payroll, the same as for the full-service title. On the advisory figure, payroll, not the counter, is what separates the two. The cold-food, coffee and frozen yogurt shop titles carry a lower advisory rate, which is why the hot food line matters more than the counter. Carriers file their own rates.
Crown Your Crew turns a schedule of cashiers, cooks and shift leads into an estimated payroll, while the kitchen and server workers comp guide breaks down what each role contributes.
Illustrative scenario
Illustrative only. A Sacramento bowl shop sells cold grain bowls, salads and pressed juices. Guests order at a kiosk, pay up front and sit where they like, and nothing hot leaves the kitchen, so the published sandwich shop wording may describe it. The owner adds a grill for proteins and a soup station. Once hot food is prepared, the shop wording no longer fits and the fast food or fast casual title, with its higher advisory rate, describes the operation; the carrier makes the call. Move the shop to Reno and the example breaks: Nevada classifies under NCCI, the WCIRB's hot-and-cold line doesn't apply, and reported tips may count toward industrial insurance payroll.
Keeping Last Year's Class After the Menu Changes
A coffee or cold-food shop that adds breakfast burritos, hot sandwiches or beer often keeps reporting the way it did at the last renewal. The shop wording turns on hot food and alcohol, so the change can point toward a restaurant title with a higher advisory rate, and the audit may catch it months later. Tell the carrier when the menu changes.
The workers comp audit records guide explains how to question a finding you disagree with.
Workers comp responds to injuries among the people on your schedule. A customer who slips by the drink station, a crash in the drive-through lane or food that makes a guest sick typically falls to general liability or auto coverage, depending on the facts; the general liability and commercial auto page lists those lines. Franchisees have more to sort out, from the franchise agreement's insurance terms to each unit's format, on the workers comp for restaurant franchisees page. With payroll by role and each unit's ordering model, get a counter-service restaurant workers comp quote.
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Running paid orders to tables is part of the limited table service the WCIRB's fast food or fast casual wording allows, along with refilling drinks and clearing tables. What points toward the full-service title is taking orders at the table and collecting payment after the meal. The carrier makes the determination for each location.
It can. California's sandwich shop wording applies where cold food leads the sales and no hot food or alcohol is prepared or served. A griddle brings hot food into the shop, so a restaurant title may describe it better, and the restaurant titles carry a higher advisory rate. Tell the carrier before the change and keep sales by category so the audit can see the split.
Not by itself. The published fast food or fast casual wording names counter, drive-through window, kiosk and web-based app ordering side by side, as long as guests pay when they order and seat themselves. Delivery is a separate payroll question: list the drivers you employ by role and tell the carrier whose vehicles they use.
Not on the advisory figure. For policies from September 1, 2026, the WCIRB's approved advisory rate is $2.784 per $100 of payroll for both titles. Carriers file their own rates, and the payroll mix and claim record explain most of the gap between two quotes.
The WCIRB's shop wording goes by the category with the highest share of sales, so a coffee bar that also sells cold sandwiches is read by whichever leads, the drinks or the food. Hot food or alcohol changes the picture, since the shop titles apply only where neither is prepared or poured. Keep point-of-sale reports by category; the carrier makes the determination.
By the carrier, under NCCI classifications. The counter-service test above is California's own, and a California title number carries no meaning in either state. Read your classification on the policy declarations and see Arizona workers comp class codes or Nevada advisory loss costs by class code for how to check it.
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Reviewed by David Gleason, Principal, on .
Next Level Experience. Insurance Done Right.
Fast casual and counter-service workers comp, from the ordering test to the hot food line.
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