Occupational injury costs and alternative employment in construction trades

Abstract

Objective: To present the costs of fatal and non-fatal days-away-from-work injuries in 50 construction occupations. Our results also provide indirect evidence on the cost exposure of alternative construction workers such as independent contractors, on-call or day labor, contract workers, and temporary workers.

Methods: We combine data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average annual incidence from 2000 to 2002 with updated per-case costs from an existing cost model for occupational injuries. The Current Population Survey provides data on the percentage of alternative construction workers.

Results: Construction laborers and carpenters were the two costliest occupations, with 40% of the industry's injury costs. The 10 costliest construction occupations also have a high percentage of alternative workers.

Conclusions: The construction industry has both a high rate of alternative employment and high costs of work injury. Alternative workers, often lacking workers' compensation, are especially exposed to injury costs.