Costs due to Injuries
Back injuries due to outside force injury, such as lifting trash and recyclable materials, cost businesses millions every year. But while the average cost of a back injury is $37,000, that is only part of the story. It has been estimated that employers pay almost $1 billion per week for direct workers' compensation costs alone, or $52 billion annually. Direct costs include workers' compensation payments, medical expenses, and indemnity payments. Indirect costs included time lost by the injured employee, fellow workers and supervisors; cleanup time; schedule delays; training new employees; overhead; legal fees and an increase in insurance costs. The total average is closer to $74,000… or more.
OSHA, in conjunction with the United States Department of Labor, has created the $afety Pays program that can help employers assess the impact of occupational injuries on their profitability. This program uses a company's profit margin, the average costs of an injury or illness, and an indirect cost multiplier to project the amount of sales a company would need to cover those costs. The program is intended as a tool to raise awareness of how occupational injuries and illnesses can impact a company's profitability, not to provide a detailed analysis of a particular company's occupational injury and illness costs.
Link to Calculator