Peoria business owners often complain that safety rules hurt their bottom lines, but a new study shows that workplace safety regulations lower the number of worker injuries without lowering profits.
The decade-long study was of hundreds of work sites subjected to random checks by safety inspectors. Researchers found that the companies lowered their injury claims by 9.4 percent compared to businesses that weren't inspected -- and there was no reduction of sales or profits.
The inspected work sites saved an average on 26 percent in workers' compensation costs when compared to similar companies that weren't inspected.
The study published in the journal Science stands in stark contrast to the claims of business groups claiming that safety regulations are jobs-killers.
The businesses would often prefer that the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration got rid of random inspections and focused instead on encouraging voluntary safety compliance.
"These inspections ironically appear to be creating value for the firms that they are visiting in terms of reduced workers' comp costs and frequency of injuries," said one of the study's authors.
The research was conducted on businesses inspected by California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health between the years 1996 and 2006. Researchers said inspected firms saved an average of $335,000 from injury claims over the four years following an inspection.
One public health expert said the study shows that the opposite of conventional wisdom about jobs-killing regulations is true: safety regulations make businesses more efficient, as well as making workers safer.
Employers save money on injury claims and lost production and workers are spared injuries on the job.
Source: Associated Press, "Study finds government job-safety inspections reduce injuries without hurting profits," May 17, 2012
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