Back injuries top payouts for hurt restaurant workers

AmTrust: Cuts, punctures and scrapes remain the most common cause of restaurant injury.

Hand injuries are the third most common injury of restaurant workers averaging $3,733 per payout. (Credit: Andrey/Adobe Stock)

While comprising just 1% of all workers’ compensation claims in restaurants, back injuries to a disc, vertebrae or spinal cord are by far the most expensive, according to an AmTrust report.

A disc injury claim in 2024 averages $85,130 in payout per claim, a vertebrae injury averages $67,362 and a spinal cord injury averages $60,609, the data showed.

“When looking at the top ten most common injuries over the past six years, we saw that, fortunately, these injuries amounted to less than one percent of all the claims we examined. But, they are by far the costliest to treat,” said Matt Zender, senior vice president of workers’ compensation product management at AmTrust. “While not common, disc, vertebrae and spinal cord injuries are the most expensive, with the typical paid-out claim for a worker averaging between $60,000 and $85,000.”

“Overall, back injuries have been higher than average in the last few years, which may indicate that restaurant workers are a part of our ‘delivery economy’ when it comes to lifting, straining and repetitive motions,” Zender added.

Cuts, punctures and scrapes remain the most common cause of restaurant injury averaging $1,798 per claim. Some other common injuries are burns from hot surfaces or oil, muscle strains and sprains from falls, repetitive motions, standing in the same place for long periods or lifting heavy objects.

Additional insights from the report include:

Meanwhile, burns average $4,326 per claim, sprains average $9,996 per claim, while contusions and strains average $4,795 and $10,672 respectively.

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