Most South Carolina restaurants pay roughly $1.10 to $2.30 per $100 of payroll for workers' compensation on the main restaurant class code, before credits and the experience mod. For a full-service restaurant with about $400,000 in annual payroll, that usually works out to somewhere in the $5,000 to $9,500 a year range — but the real number swings on your class-code mix, whether you run delivery, your claims history, and your experience mod. These are general ranges to set expectations, not a quote.
Workers' comp premium isn't a flat fee — it's built from your payroll and the rate that applies to each class of work. For each class code, the carrier takes your payroll, divides by 100, and multiplies by the rate for that code. Then your experience modification factor (the "mod") adjusts the whole thing up or down based on your claims history, and the carrier applies its own credits or debits. Two identical-looking restaurants can pay very different premiums if one has clean claims and clean class-code splits and the other doesn't.
South Carolina uses NCCI class codes, the same national framework as most Southeastern states. The code that applies depends on the kind of operation you run:
| Class code | Type of operation | Typical rate per $100 payroll* |
|---|---|---|
| 9082 | Restaurant NOC (full-service, sit-down) | ~$1.20 – $1.90 |
| 9083 | Restaurant — fast food / limited service | ~$1.10 – $1.60 |
| 9084 | Bar, tavern, lounge (higher alcohol share) | ~$1.40 – $2.30 |
| 8810 | Clerical / office staff | ~$0.10 – $0.30 |
| 7380 | Outside delivery drivers | ~$3.50 – $6.50+ |
*Illustrative general ranges for setting expectations only, before experience mod and carrier credits/debits. Actual filed rates in South Carolina vary by carrier and change over time. Not a quote.
The takeaway from that table: not all restaurant payroll should be rated the same. A bookkeeper who never enters the kitchen shouldn't be rated at the 9082 restaurant rate, and a delivery driver shouldn't be buried inside kitchen payroll — delivery is a much higher-rated exposure. Getting these splits documented correctly is one of the most common ways South Carolina restaurants quietly overpay year after year.
Say you run a full-service restaurant in South Carolina with $400,000 in total annual payroll, split as $320,000 in restaurant staff (9082), $50,000 in a manager/office role that can be partly clerical (8810), and $30,000 in delivery drivers (7380). Even at illustrative mid-range rates, the delivery slice carries a disproportionate share of the premium because its rate is several times higher than the kitchen rate. Lumping that $30,000 of delivery into 9082 would understate risk and set you up for an audit surprise, while lumping the clerical role into 9082 would overstate it and cost you money now. The right answer is accurate splits — which is exactly what an audit-ready payroll record and an agent who checks the codes are for.
South Carolina law requires most employers with four or more employees — full-time or part-time — to carry workers' compensation. The count includes part-timers, so a restaurant with a handful of servers, a couple of cooks, and a dishwasher is almost always over the line. That threshold is the same as Florida's four-employee rule and higher than Georgia's three. Certain owners and corporate officers can elect out where the law allows, but the four-employee rule sweeps in nearly every real restaurant. Going without coverage isn't just a legal exposure — a single serious kitchen burn or fall can dwarf a year of premium.
Workers' comp and liquor liability are different coverages, but in South Carolina they're often shopped together, and it's worth understanding why. South Carolina requires establishments licensed to serve alcohol after 5:00 p.m. to carry a minimum of $1 million in liquor liability. Combined with a genuinely hard liquor-liability market in the state, that has pushed a lot of restaurant and bar owners to review their entire program at renewal instead of one line at a time. If you're already re-shopping liquor liability, it's the natural moment to make sure your comp class codes and experience mod are being handled correctly too — the two lines land on the same renewal and often the same carrier relationship.
Bettr Coverage is an independent commercial insurance agency serving South Carolina and the Southeast. We write restaurant and bar workers' comp alongside the rest of the program — general liability, liquor liability in a market that's gotten hard for SC hospitality, property, and commercial auto for delivery — and we shop each account across multiple carriers to match your class codes and claims history to the market that wants them. We work owner-to-owner, we check the class-code splits most agents skip, and we review your whole restaurant program together instead of one line at a time.
Bettr Coverage shops your workers' comp, general liability, liquor liability, property, and delivery auto across multiple carriers — one agency, one relationship, the class codes checked and the whole program reviewed together.
Get a free coverage reviewRoughly $1.10–$2.30 per $100 of payroll on the main restaurant code before the mod and credits. A full-service restaurant with $400K payroll often lands around $5,000–$9,500/yr, depending on class mix, delivery, and claims history.
Full-service is usually NCCI 9082, fast food 9083, bars 9084, clerical 8810, and outside delivery drivers a separate higher-rated code (around 7380). Correct splits matter a lot.
Yes for most — South Carolina requires most employers with four or more employees, full- or part-time, to carry it. Nearly every real restaurant crosses that threshold.
SC requires $1M liquor liability for establishments serving after 5 p.m., and that market is hard right now. Many owners re-shop comp and liquor liability together at the same renewal.
Total payroll, class-code mix, experience mod, delivery exposure, and safety practices. A mod above 1.0 and heavy delivery push it up; clean claims and accurate splits pull it down.
Yes — restaurant and bar workers' comp alongside GL, liquor liability, property, and delivery auto, shopped across multiple carriers.
For general information only. Not a quote or contract of insurance. Premium ranges and class-code rates shown are illustrative estimates for setting expectations, not filed rates, and vary by carrier, payroll, class code, experience mod, and underwriting; rates change over time. Workers' compensation and liquor-liability requirements are set by South Carolina law and administered by the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission and the SC Department of Revenue — confirm current requirements with a licensed agent or the applicable state authority. Coverage subject to policy terms and carrier appetite.