What is DART rate and why does it matter?

DART stands for Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred. It is the OSHA-recognised severity indicator that counts only the recordable cases serious enough to keep someone off work, on restricted duty, or in a different role. Insurers, EMR calculations, ISNetworld and Avetta prequalification questionnaires all ask for DART alongside TRIR because it separates 'we report everything' from 'people are getting hurt badly enough to lose days.'

What is the formula for DART rate?

DART rate = (Number of DART cases × 200,000) ÷ Total hours worked by all employees. The 200,000 constant equals 100 full-time employees working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks, so the result reads as 'cases per 100 workers per year' regardless of workforce size.

How is DART different from TRIR?

TRIR counts every OSHA-recordable case. DART counts only the ones that also caused days away, restricted work, or job transfer. Every DART case is a TRIR case; not every TRIR case is a DART case. A high TRIR with a low DART means you are recording everything you should, but severity is well controlled — auditors read that pattern as maturity, not weakness.

What counts as a DART case?

Per 29 CFR 1904.7, a case is DART if the injured worker had one or more calendar days away from work after the day of injury, was put on restricted work (cannot perform routine job functions or a full shift), or was transferred to a different job. Medical treatment beyond first aid alone is recordable but not necessarily DART — only the ones that also affect work status count.

What is a good DART rate?

Below 1.5 is broadly considered acceptable across US industry; below 0.5 is world-class. As with TRIR, compare against your NAICS code rather than the all-industry average of 1.7. Construction sits around 1.4, healthcare closer to 2.5 — the same absolute number reads very differently depending on the sector.

How do restricted days and transfer days count?

OSHA 300 counts calendar days, not shift days. Restricted-work and job-transfer counts both cap at 180 days per case — after that you stop counting even if the restriction continues. Days away caps at 180 as well and is tracked separately from restricted/transferred days on the log.

Should we track DART monthly or annually?

Both. Annual DART is what OSHA 300A, insurers, and prequalifiers ask for. Rolling 12-month DART is the correct trend metric for internal dashboards — comparing this January to last January without normalisation is misleading because a single serious injury on a small hour base can spike the monthly rate. Most safety management systems compute a rolling DART automatically from the incident register.

Interactive tool & guide

DART rate calculator — plus how to calculate DART rate correctly

Enter your DART cases (days away, restricted work, or job transfer) and total hours worked to calculate the OSHA-recognised severity indicator every 300A, insurer, and contractor prequalifier asks for. Full formula, benchmark comparison against your industry, and the recordability rules that decide what counts as DART.

Last reviewed 9 July 2026 · SafeGuard EHS Editorial · 6 min read · Sister tool to our TRIR calculator.

Calculator

Calculate your DART rate + compare to your industry

Uses the same 200,000-hour constant as TRIR so the result reads as 'DART cases per 100 full-time workers per year.'

Inputs

DART cases (days away, restricted, or transferred)

Only recordable cases with ≥1 day away, restricted duty, or job transfer. First-aid-only and medical-treatment-only cases do not count as DART.

Total hours worked

Sum every employee's actual hours worked (regular + overtime). Exclude vacation, sick, and holiday hours. 100 full-time workers ≈ 200,000 hours/year.

Compare to industry (optional)

Matches against BLS 2023 industry averages in the benchmark table below.

Results

DART rate1.20

Acceptable (<1.5)

vs. Manufacturing (NAICS 31–33)

Industry average DART: 1.7. Your rate is below average by 29%.

How it's calculated

DART = (3 × 200,000) ÷ 500000

Formula

The DART rate formula, unpacked

DART rate = (DART cases × 200,000) ÷ Total hours worked

The 200,000 constant is the OSHA normalising factor for "100 full-time workers, 40 hours/week, 50 weeks/year." It lets a 30-person contractor and a 3,000-person manufacturer compare DART rates on the same scale.

Worked example

A 250-employee manufacturing site has 3 DART cases in a year with a combined 520,000 hours worked.

DART = (3 × 200,000) ÷ 520,000 = 600,000 ÷ 520,000 = 1.15. Below the manufacturing average of 1.7 — solid, but the DART/TRIR ratio (severity share) is worth tracking alongside the headline number.

Benchmarks

DART rate benchmarks by industry (BLS 2023 data)

Compare your DART rate to your own NAICS code, not the all-industry average.

Industry (NAICS)	Average DART rate
Construction (NAICS 23)	1.4
Manufacturing (NAICS 31–33)	1.7
Healthcare & social assistance (NAICS 62)	2.5
Warehousing & transportation (NAICS 48–49)	2.7
Retail trade (NAICS 44–45)	1.6
Professional & business services (NAICS 54–56)	0.5
All private industry (US average)	1.7

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses (Table SNR05). DART incidence rate per 100 full-time workers.

Common mistakes

Five ways DART gets miscalculated

Counting medical-treatment-only cases as DART

Stitches, prescription meds, and physio without lost or restricted work make a case TRIR-recordable but not DART. Rolling them in inflates DART and breaks benchmark comparisons.

Missing restricted-work cases

A worker on 'light duty' for two weeks IS a DART case even if they never missed a shift. Under-counting restricted-work is the single most common DART reporting error on OSHA audits.

Counting shifts instead of calendar days

OSHA 300 uses calendar days away, not scheduled shifts missed. The day of injury does not count; the count starts the next calendar day and caps at 180 per case.

Ignoring the 180-day cap

Days-away and restricted-day columns each cap at 180 per case. Continuing to accrue days past the cap distorts multi-year severity trends and fails audit sampling.

Comparing to the all-industry average

A 1.7 DART rate reads great against healthcare's 2.5 and poorly against professional services' 0.5. Always benchmark against your own NAICS code before drawing conclusions.

Reporting DART where TRIR was asked (or vice versa)

ISNetworld, Avetta and most prequalifiers ask for both separately. Reporting one where the other belongs fails the questionnaire — and often disqualifies the bid.

DART rate calculation — common questions

Calculate DART automatically from your incident log

SafeGuard EHS auto-computes rolling DART, TRIR, and LTIR from every recordable case — with OSHA 300A export and industry benchmark alerts built in.

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