In March of 2015, OSHA released a comprehensive report of the overall effects of injuries and illnesses on workers’ lives. On a social and financial level, thes
e events can be devastating to an individual and their family — something that statistics themselves cannot capture.
There are still meaningful associated statistics, however. You could argue that employers are responsible for injuries if they have not been sufficiently providing a safe environment, yet employers only cover ~20% of the overall official costs of workplace incidents (via workers’ comp), leaving the rest of the burden on the harmed employee themselves. According to the OSHA report, workers earn about 15% less than their projected 10-year earnings in those ten years following an injury! Compounded with the actual costs of those injuries, this is clearly harmful to the employee and those who rely on them.
Unfortunately, workers’ compensation laws also mean that workers lose the right to sue the responsible employer after they have been remunerated for their injuries. About half of the costs are covered out-of-pocket, further compounding the damage that being forced away from work by already-costly injuries. About half of all recorded injuries require at least one day away from work, and many of those even require a job transfer or further restrictions on work in order to recover.
The aggregate costs of fatal and non-fatal work injuries in 2012 was $198 billion, according to the National Safety Council. Safety programs must be strengthened in order to avoid not only these severe monetary costs but also the emotional and psychological tolls that workplace injuries can cause to those who suffer from them. The OSHA report cites mismanagement at multi-employer sites and erroneous classification of regular employees as independent contractors as key ways in which employees are inadvertently harmed. People working under these conditions are technically subjected to different safety requirements than are regular employees, and so the penalties imposed on their employers are much less severe than they should be. OSHA does not discuss their own role in perpetuating this system in their report, but all companies should try to present the safest possible environment for everyone at their worksite regardless of what regulations say.
