Study methodology: the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index is based on information from Liberty Mutual, customized data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, and the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI). BLS nonfatal injury data are analyzed with the Liberty Mutual data to determine which events caused employees to miss more than five days of work, and then to rank those events by workers compensation costs, which are then scaled to the NASI total cost. To capture accurate injury cost data, each index is based on data three years prior. Accordingly, the 2024 Index reflects 2021data.
The steps you take today can help build a more successful future for your business.
You can create safer workplaces that help protect your employees — and your bottom line. It all starts with the right partnership. Ask your insurance broker and carrier for guidance on how to identify and help mitigate workplace risks.
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Wholesale
Transportation & warehousing
Retail
Professional
services
Manufacturing
Leisure & hospitality
Healthcare &
social services
Construction
Dive into the 2024 Index with these eight industry reports:
Specialized industries come with specialized risks. This year’s WSI examines
common causes of injury and how they may be unique to specific industries.
Deep dive Risk exposures by industry
Zoom in on workplace injuries
While last year’s WSI represented 2020 data, the year of COVID-19 onset, this year’s WSI represents 2021 data and shows a return of pre-pandemic causes of loss.
The Workplace Safety Index:
injury rankings by type, 2019 to 2024
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2024 WSI total cost of workplace injuries
$58.07B
2024 WSI Top 10 total
$47.90B
U.S. businesses spend more than $1 billion per week on workplace injuries, for a staggering total of more than $58 billion per year. That’s a tough pill to swallow — even more so when we realize these costs stem almost entirely from just 10 common workplace injuries.
We can build a safer workplace.
Together.
Here’s this year’s Top Ten list, along with warning signs to help get the conversation started with a qualified risk control consultant.
The 2024 Workplace Safety Index estimates the top 10 causes of the most serious workplace injuries — those causing an employee to miss more than five days of work — and ranks them by their direct costs of medical and lost-wage payments.
Cost per year: $12.49B
Warning sign: heavy loads
Overexertion involving outside sources
1
Do workers have access to equipment that reduces the need to lift heavy items?
Cost per year: $9.99B
Warning sign: wet floors
Falls on
same level
2
Are housekeeping and maintenance activities adequately monitored and consistently completed?
Cost per year: $5.55B
Warning sign: unsecured tools, racks, or product
Struck by object or equipment
4
Are processes in place for functional and safe storage of workplace supplies?
Cost per year: $5.68B
Warning sign: wobbly ladders
Falls to lower level
3
Is your workplace designed to minimize the use of ladders unless absolutely necessary?
Cost per year: $2.76B
Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles
6
Do policies exist that encourage safer driving practices?
Warning sign: texting while driving
Cost per year: $3.68B
Other exertions or bodily reactions
5
Are ergonomic measures implemented wherever possible?
Warning sign: climbing out of a vehicle
Cost per year: $2.05B
Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects
8
Is all equipment appropriately guarded with all workers properly trained and supervised?
Warning sign: moving or rotating machinery
Cost per year: $2.34B
Slip or trip without fall
7
Are weather-related hazards promptly addressed, and are walkways maintained?
Warning sign: slippery or uneven walkways
(vehicle crashes)
(awkward postures)
(running equipment or machines)
Cost per year: $1.54B
Repetitive motions involving microtasks
10
Do work areas enable good postures, and does scheduling vary work tasks and allow breaks?
Warning sign: hand-and shoulder-intensive work
Cost per year: $1.84B
(person colliding with objects)
Struck against object or equipment
9
Are travel paths clear with potential hazards marked with proper warning signage?
Warning sign: low-headroom areas at work
The other first-time inclusion in the 2023 Index, pedestrian vehicular incidents, also fell off the Index, making way for struck-against and repetitive-motion injuries to reclaim their places in the WSI.
Lost-time claims due to COVID-19 fell from 11 percent to 4 percent, so exposure to other harmful substances (the category that included COVID-19 illnesses) disappeared from the Top 10 as quickly as it appeared.
Covid 19
Pedestrian vehicular incidents
How has the WSI changed over time?
Click the icons below to learn more.
Analysis WSI rankings over time
Top ten risks
Exposures by industry
Rankings over time
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