Workplace injuries and illnesses and employer costs for workers’ compensation

Chalita Brandly

Depending on the circumstances surrounding an occupational injury or illness, employees may receive workers’ compensation benefits to replace lost wages and to pay for medical expenses. This Spotlight on Statistics looks at workplace injury and illness data and the costs to employers for workers’ compensation in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations.  

Among the five high-level civilian occupational groups, the natural resources, construction, and maintenance (NRCM) group is the smallest, in terms of employment, with 11.3 million wage and salary workers in May 2015. By contrast, the largest group, management, business, science, and arts occupations, employed 43.0 million workers in May 2015. The average employer cost for wages and salaries in NRCM occupations was $22.68 per hour worked in March 2015, which was comparable to the hourly cost for all civilian workers ($22.88).

The natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (NRCM) group consists of three major occupational groups and 126 detailed occupations. In terms of employment levels in May 2015, the largest detailed occupations are maintenance and repair workers, general (1,314,560), construction laborers (887,580), carpenters (639,190), automotive service technicians and mechanics (638,080), and electricians (592,230). Among the smallest occupations are watch repairers (2,200), animal breeders (1,130), and fishers and related fishing workers (540). 

The NRCM group also includes a wide range of occupations in terms of median hourly wages. The highest paid occupation is elevator installers and repairers, whose median hourly wages in May 2015 were $38.88, or more than twice the median for all occupations ($17.40). The occupation with the lowest hourly wages was farmworkers and laborers, crop, nursery, and greenhouse, whose median wage was $9.51 per hour in May 2015, a little more than half the median for all occupations.

Although the natural resources, construction, and maintenance (NRCM) group is the smallest of the high-level occupation groups, in terms of employment, it had one of the highest rates of absences due to work-related injuries and illnesses. The incidence rate for injuries and illnesses involving days away from work—the number of such incidents per 10,000 full-time workers—was 191.6 in the NRCM occupations in 2014, compared with 107.1 for all occupations.

In terms of the body part affected by a workplace injury or illness, the natural resources, construction, and maintenance (NRCM) occupations had incidence rates for the trunk, hand, and head that were nearly twice the comparable rates for all workers. In the NRCM occupations, the incidence rate for the trunk was 45.7 in 2014, compared with 24.9 for all workers. The rates in the NRCM group for the hand (29.6) and head (16.4) were also higher than for all workers (12.7 and 7.8, respectively).

The median number of days away from work because of a job-related injury or illness in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations was 10 days in 2014, compared with 9 days for all workers.

Workers’ compensation, a system of insurance established by state law and financed by employers, provides payment to workers or their families specifically for occupational illnesses or injuries. In March 2015, employers spent an average of $1.02 per hour worked for workers’ compensation in the natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (NRCM) group, compared with $0.45 for all occupations. Workers’ compensation costs made up 3.0 percent of total compensation costs in the NRCM group, compared with 1.4 percent in all occupations.

Over the period from March 2004 to March 2015, BLS estimates for workers’ compensation costs as a share of total compensation costs were much higher for natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations than for all occupations.

Between March 2004 and March 2014, workers’ compensation cost as a share of total compensation ranged from 3.0 percent to 4.5 percent for private industry workers in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations. Injury and illness cases requiring days away from work ranged from 166,700 to 275,800 during the same period.