Regulation Policy

EPF Analysis: Workplace Safety Has Improved

The AFL-CIO claims nearly 200,000 lives have been saved since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established in 1970. However, analysts say today's safer workplaces have little to do with OSHA.

Workplace fatality rates had been declining for at least 35 years before OSHA, and analysts say the most important reason for the drop in fatalities is that economic growth replaces "dangerous" jobs with safer ones.

  • In the 1930s there were nearly 40 fatalities per 100,000 workers each year.

  • By 1970, the fatality rate had already dropped to 18, and in 1996 it was about 5.

  • For example, the services industry, the fastest growing employment sector, experiences only 1 death per 100,000 workers annually while the mining and agriculture industries -- where employment has declined -- experience over 20 deaths per 100,000 workers.

  • Moreover, approximately 60 percent of all workplace fatalities are caused by transportation/highway accidents or workplace violence -- factors unlikely to be affected by OSHA regulations or inspections.

In contrast to fatality rates, the changes in injury and illness rates have been modest. Most research over the last 20 years shows that OSHA's impact on injury and illness rates is very small -- in the range of 1 to 3 percent.

Thus the incidence of serious workplace injury and illnesses was exactly the same in 1996 as it was in 1973, and non-serious injuries have fallen only slightly over the last 20 years.

It would take OSHA 109 years to inspect all workplaces under its jurisdiction, according to the AFL-CIO, but the level of OSHA workplace inspections is unrelated to accident and illness rates (see figure). http://www.epf.org/graph/et980519.gif

In Michigan, for example, there are enough inspectors so that it would only take 33 years to inspect all workplaces. Yet, Michigan has an injury/illness rate nearly double that of Louisiana, where it would take nearly 200 years to inspect all workplaces with the current number of inspectors.

Source: "Workplace Safety Continues to Improve Independent of OSHA's Activities," E-Mail Trends, May 19, 1998, Employment Policy Foundation, 1015 15th St., N.W., Suite 1200, Washington, D.C. 20005, (202) 789-8685.

For text http://www.epf.org/et980519.htm

Home | Support Us | All Issues | Social Security | Debate Central | Contact Us

Dallas Headquarters: 12770 Coit Rd., Suite 800 - Dallas, TX 75251-1339 - 972/386-6272 - Fax 972/386-0924
Washington Office: 601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 900 South Building - Washington, DC 20004 - 202/220-3082 - Fax 202/220-3096
© 2001 NCPA