As an employer, it’s your job to keep your team safe while they’re at work. In fact, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, 45 years ago requiring companies to establish workplaces that are “free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm” to their employees. Regardless, the United States still has an alarmingly high rate of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), roughly 4,500 workers are killed on the job each year. Additionally, the BLS estimates that approximately 3 million serious workplace injuries are recorded annually on legally mandated logs and many more are likely never logged. Around half of these recorded injuries require employees to take at least one day off of work, put in for a job transfer or endure a lengthy work restriction to recover.
The Many Costs of Workplace Injuries
Failing to protect your employees from workplace hazards can have a negative impact for the rest of their lives. Many chronic health conditions don’t appear until long after the exposure has ended, so they’re not attributed to the workplace. However, studies have estimated that around 50,000 deaths in our country each year can be attributed to past workplace hazards. Comparatively, in 2013, roughly 33,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes.
The economic costs of workplace injuries are also vast. The National Safety Council estimates that the cost of on the job injuries totaled $198 billion in 2012. You may think workers’ compensation will cover all of the out-of-pocket expenses incurred by your employees, but that isn’t necessarily the case.
A recent study of workers in New Mexico who receive workers’ compensation benefits for loss of wages caused by workplace injuries, revealed they lose an average of 15 percent of the earnings they would have amassed over the next 10 years. Even when including workers’ compensation benefits, injured workers earned an average of nearly $31,000 less over 10 years than they would’ve if they hadn’t been harmed.
Some economic and non-economic losses are easy to measure, but others are more difficult. These costs often have a substantial impact on low-income families, as other members may be forced to reduce their work hours to care for injured loved ones. This can be detrimental to families who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Stay tuned for part two of this series next month…
Don’t settle for anything but the best heavy industrial, engineering and manufacturing professionals in the industry. Partner with Premium Staffing, Inc. to find top talent to fill your open positions. We’ve proudly been serving the Chicago area, since 2006.