In March of this year, OSHA released a report, Adding Inequality to Injury: The Cost of Failing to Protect Workers on the Job.1 The 20-page report focuses on how work-related injuries and illnesses force thousands of working families out of the middle class and prevents many low-wage earners from exiting poverty and realizing the American Dream.
The author(s) contend that even though an estimated three million injuries occur each year, “it is undoubtedly only a fraction of the true number.” Digging into the report’s Endnotes reveals a number of studies that have estimated injury numbers to be considerably higher than “officially” reported. For example, Dr. J. Paul Leigh estimated injury numbers as high as 8.5 million injuries in 20072 versus the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2007 number of total injuries at about 4 million.3