The restaurant workers' comp class code is being taken apart

The restaurant workers' comp class code most operators know, 9079, is being dismantled and replaced by a tiered set that distinguishes full-service from fast casual from bars. In Texas the change applies to new and renewal policies effective on or after 12:01 a.m. on July 1, 2027, under Commissioner's Order 2026-10122, signed September 15, 2026. It comes from NCCI Item B-1452, which revises Basic Manual classifications for bakeries and restaurants.

Nothing moves mid-term. What moves is the code on the renewal after that date, and then the audit that prices it.

Which restaurant workers' comp class code replaces 9079?

Three, mostly, depending on what the business actually does.

The reassignments reach further than the restaurant floor. Ice cream vendors on neighborhood routes and mobile food units, previously in 8752, land in 9083. Ice cream parlors and yogurt shops, previously in 8017, land in 9083 as well. On the bakery side, several Texas-specific phraseologies in code 2003 covering cookie, cracker, and ice cream cone manufacturing are consolidated into a single multistate phraseology, Bakery—Wholesale & Drivers. Concession stands at automobile, dog, and horse racetracks get their own new Texas-specific phraseologies under 9083.

The elimination is explicit rather than implied. The filing revises the Texas Table of classifications by hazard group to remove code 9079 and add 9082, 9083, and 9084, all effective July 1, 2027. Worth noting where they land: 9082 and 9083 sit in hazard group A, the same group 9079 occupied, while 9084 for bars and taverns sits in hazard group B.

NCCI's stated purpose is uniformity. Texas had accumulated its own phraseologies that did not match the multistate ones, and the filing says the change will "make both the Texas and multistate classifications more uniform" and "better align exposure to pricing within an individual class code."

Does this raise premium or lower it?

NCCI expects negligible impact on overall statewide premium, which is a statement about the aggregate and not about any individual restaurant. The filing is specific about direction, and the directions differ.

The driver line is the one with the widest reach. Delivery drivers previously sitting in code 7380 move into the restaurant codes themselves, because every one of the new phraseologies carries "& Drivers." A restaurant that has been splitting payroll between a restaurant code and a driver code will be reporting a single code afterward, and NCCI expects that to cost less rather than more.

The distinction that will actually get argued

Full-service versus fast casual.

Those two words now separate 9082 from 9083, and the boundary between them is not obvious in a business that does both. A restaurant with table service at dinner and a counter at lunch has a real question to answer, and so does one that moved to counter ordering with food runners. The manual will decide it on operations rather than on what the sign says, which means the evidence is the same evidence any class code dispute turns on: how the work is actually performed, by whom, and in what proportion.

This is worth thinking about before the renewal rather than after. A governing classification assigned at binding carries through the term, and the audit that follows prices whatever payroll sits under it. Getting reassigned into the wrong tier at renewal means twelve months of exposure recorded under the wrong code before anyone looks again.

Hotels have a version of the same split handed to them explicitly. The hotel and motel phraseologies in code 9052 are being revised to refer restaurant employees to code 9058, so a hotel with a restaurant is now expected to report two codes rather than absorb the kitchen into the property.

How the filing got here

Worth noting for anyone who assumes these items arrive fully formed. NCCI filed B-1452 with Texas on March 31, 2026. Texas Mutual asked that three Texas-specific phraseologies for beverage stores in code 8017 be deleted, because they conflicted with or created ambiguity against businesses now enumerated in the new code 9083. TDI agreed that the beverage store phraseologies could create ambiguity, and NCCI amended its filing on July 15, 2026 to delete them. A separate request to remove health food store phraseologies was ruled outside the scope of the filing. NCCI made a nonsubstantive correction on August 21, 2026, and the order approved the revised filing.

Carriers read these notices. Restaurant operators generally do not, and the first they hear of a classification change is a renewal declarations page with a different number on it.

What to do before July 2027

Decide which tier describes your operation, in writing, before someone else decides for you. Write down how service actually works: who takes the order, who brings the food, whether there is table service, what share of revenue is delivery, whether alcohol makes the room a bar for part of the week. That description is what a classification argument runs on.

Then check your driver payroll. If it is currently sitting in 7380, it is moving, and the move should reduce cost rather than increase it. If it turns up unchanged on a 2027-28 renewal, that is a question worth asking.

The same thing happened this year to clerical staff working from home, where a new code for remote employees arrived with its own set of proof requirements. Classification wording moves more than most employers realize, and it moves without a phone call.