Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The 2017 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index produced by the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety has found more than $1 billion is spent each week on serious but non-fatal injuries in workplaces in the United States. The Workplace Safety Index ranks the top ten causes of disabling work-related injuries and their direct costs.
The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index revealed the total cost of the most disabling workplace injuries was $59.87 billion per year in 2014 – the last year data was available – an average of more than $1 billion per week over 52 weeks. The cost of top ten most disabling workplace injuries was $49.92 billion per year. The top injuries were:
- 1. Overexertion involving outside sources: 23.0 percent / $13.79 billion.
- 2. Falls on same level: 17.7 percent / $10.62 billion.
- 3. Falls to lower level: 9.2 percent / $5.50 billion.
- 4. Struck by object or equipment: 7.4 percent / $4.43 billion.
- 5. Other exertions or bodily reactions: 6.5 percent / $3.89 billion.
- 6. Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle: 6.2 percent / $3.70 billion.
- 7. Slip or trip without fall: 3.8 percent / $2.30 billion.
- 8. Caught in/compressed by equipment or objects: 3.3 percent / $1.95 billion.
- 9. Struck against object or equipment: 3.2 percent / $1.94 billion.
- 10. Repetitive motions involving micro-tasks: 3.0 percent / $1.81 billion.
The top five injury causes accounted for 63.8 percent of the total cost burden. The remaining five injury causes combined accounted for 19.5 percent of the total direct cost of disabling injuries. The Workplace Safety Index is at https://www.libertymutualgroup.com/about-liberty-mutual-site/research-institute-site/Documents/2017%20WSI.pdf.
The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index is based on information from Liberty Mutual, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Researchers examine BLS injury data to determine which events caused employees to miss at least six days of work and rank them by workers compensation costs.
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