Best overall
TRIR
Derived from your own 300 log, calculable today, and the number most prequalification forms ask for first.
Notice
TRIR vs DART vs EMR
A prequalification form asks for all three and treats them as one thing. They are not. Two come out of your OSHA 300 log; the third comes out of your insurer’s claim file, and it lags by more than a year.
Best for severity
DART
Days away, restricted or transferred — the subset that reflects how badly people were hurt, not just how often.
Best for the money
EMR
It multiplies your workers' compensation premium directly. It is also the one you cannot move this year.
Notice
The comparison, line by line
| Line | TRIR | DART | EMR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Source data | OSHA 300 log | OSHA 300 log | Workers’ comp claims |
| Who computes it | You | You | Your rating bureau |
| What it counts | All recordable cases | Cases with days away, restriction or transfer | Paid and reserved losses vs expected |
| Base | 200,000 hours | 200,000 hours | Dimensionless; 1.00 = as expected |
| Governing document | 29 CFR 1904 | 29 CFR 1904 | The state rating plan |
| Lag | None — compute it today | None | Excludes the most recent policy year |
| Moves with a near miss? | No | No | No |
| Moves with a claim that is not recordable? | No | No | Yes |
Recording criteria read from 29 CFR 1904.7 on 2026-09-04; the EMR column describes the rating-plan mechanism, whose constants are set per state (see the guide).
TRIR
Total recordable incident rate. It takes every case that meets one of the six criteria in 1904.7 — death, days away, restricted work or transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant diagnosis by a physician or other licensed health care professional — and expresses the count against 200,000 hours worked, which is roughly 100 full-time employees for a year.
Its weakness is that it is a frequency measure with no weighting. A stitched finger and a fatality each add one case. That is exactly why the second number exists.
Both are computed on the TRIR calculator, which shows the arithmetic rather than hiding it.
DART
Days Away, Restricted or Transferred. Same base, narrower numerator: only the cases that actually took someone off their normal work. The gap between your TRIR and your DART is a crude severity signal — a TRIR of 3.0 with a DART of 0.4 reads very differently from a TRIR of 3.0 with a DART of 2.6.
Because DART depends on the restricted-work column, it is sensitive to how carefully that column is filled in. 1904.7 is strict about it: restriction counts only if it stops the employee performing a routine job function or working the full shift, a restriction limited to the day of injury is not recordable as restricted work, and a physician’s restriction that the employee ignores is still recorded as a restricted work case.
Notice
The two rates are only as good as the log they come from. Before you quote either to a GC, read the restricted-work rules in OSHA 300 log requirements and check the column.
EMR
The odd one out, and the one with money attached. It is a workers’ compensation factor, not an OSHA number — it appears nowhere in part 1904, OSHA neither calculates nor publishes it, and it is built from claims rather than recordable cases.
Two consequences. A recordable with no claim does not touch it, and a claim from a case that never met a recording criterion does. And because the experience period excludes the most recent policy year, nothing you do this quarter shows up in the number a GC reads this year.
What actually moves it, and which document is authoritative for your business, is in EMR rating explained.
Using all three without lying
- Quote the period. “TRIR 1.8 (2025, 412,000 hours)” is an answer. “TRIR 1.8” is a claim.
- Reconcile against the 300A you posted between February 1 and April 30, and against anything you submitted electronically by March 2. Three different numbers in three places is the fastest way to lose a prequalification.
- Never adjust the log to improve a rate. Under-recording is a recordkeeping violation and it is the one an inspector can prove from your own paperwork.
Which events are recordable and which have to be phoned in within hours is set out in OSHA recordable vs reportable.
Sources, with the date each was read
- 29 CFR 1904.7 — General recording criteria (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
- 29 CFR 1904.32 — Annual summary (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
- 29 CFR 1904.41 — Electronic submission of injury and illness records (OSHA)read 2026-09-04