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Making the Business Case for Safety and Health |
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Costs of
Workplace Injuries and Illnesses |
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In addition to their social costs, workplace injuries and
illnesses have a major impact on an employer's bottom line. It has been estimated that employers pay
almost $1 billion per week for direct workers' compensation costs alone. The costs of workplace injuries and illnesses
include direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include workers' compensation
payments, medical expenses, and costs for legal services. Examples of indirect costs
include training replacement employees, accident investigation and
implementation of corrective measures, lost productivity, repairs of damaged
equipment and property, and costs associated with lower employee morale and
absenteeism.
The following resources provide background on the costs of workplace injuries
and illnesses and how employers can estimate these costs at their workplaces.
- White Paper on Return on Safety Investment. American Society of
Safety Engineers (ASSE), (2002, June). Summarizes the economic and
other costs of workplace injuries and illnesses.
- Sang D. Choi. "A Survey of the Safety Roles and Costs of Injuries in the
Roofing Contracting Industry." Journal of Safety, Health and
Environmental Research Vol. 3, No. 1, (2006, Spring). Reviews
the direct and indirect costs resulting from workplace injuries in the roofing
industry. Loss of productivity and schedule disruptions were the most
expensive indirect costs.
- 2007 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, (2008),
2.2 MB
PDF,
12 pages. Tracks the causes and costs of the most disabling workplace injuries and illnesses.
Researchers combine information from Liberty Mutual, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the
National Academy of Social Insurance to provide a broad snapshot.
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Estimating the Costs of Unintentional Injuries, 2004. National Safety Council,
(2005, December 22). Illustrates how economic costs of
unintentional injuries, including workplace injuries, can be estimated.
- J. Paul Leigh, Steven Markowitz, Marianne Fahs and Phillip Landrigan.
"Costs
of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses." University of Michigan Press,
(2000). Presents estimates of the incidence, prevalence, and costs
of workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses for the entire civilian
workforce of the United States in 1992.
- Safety & Health Management Systems. OSHA. There
are four crucial questions you should be asking when it comes to safety and health programs. The
detailed answers are found in the four modules of this eTool, including a module on the benefits
of implementing an effective safety and health program. It includes
the following information on the costs of workplace injuries and illnesses:
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Costs of accidents. Background on direct and indirect costs.
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Annual costs. Cost calculation worksheet to help users estimate annual
costs of workplace injuries and illnesses.
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Workers' Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs, 2005. National Academy of Social
Insurance, (2007, August). Provides estimates of workers’ compensation payments (cash and medical)
for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report estimates that employer costs for
workers’ compensation in 2005 were $88.8 billion, while workers’ compensation payments for injured
workers were $55.3 billion.
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