Today in Labor History December 29, 1970: President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law. Ever since, successive administrations have whittled away at the efficacy of this agency, which was designed to protect workers. Nevertheless, a study in 2012, published in the journal “Science,” found a 9.4% reduction in workplace injuries and a 26% reduction in the cost of workplace injuries since 1970. They also found that these reductions came at no additional cost to business or consumers. A 2020 study by the “American Economic Review” found that President Obama’s press releases that named and shamed companies that were violating OSHA had the same effect on improving compliance by other companies as having 210 inspections. It makes one wonder how many fewer workplace deaths and injuries would occur with an increase in inspections and penalties, on top of naming and shaming.
In 2022, there were 5,486 fatal workplace injuries in the U.S., a 5.7 % increase from 2021, a rate of 3.7 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. There was a slight drop in 2023 and a significant drop in 2024. However, the data for 2024 would have been released in 2025, by the Trump administration, which has gutted OSHA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the actual number of deaths could be significantly higher.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #osha #WorkplaceSafety #WorkplaceDeaths #nixon #obama #trump
