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Report Compares Worker Safety Across States

Posted in Workers Compensation on Thursday, July 25, 2013.

For people in Pennsylvania and across the nation, workplace safety attracts attention even as television shows fascinate many watchers. A recent study released statistics on the most dangerous jobs along with the most dangerous states where employees work. The number of those injured on the job can range widely between states, even for those within the same field.

Allsup, a provider of Social Security Disability Insurance, compiled the data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2011. They considered only injuries that involved a job change or other adjustment of responsibilities and calculated that figure per 100 workers. Maine is the state listed as the most dangerous for workers, with a rate of 1.4 or two times the country’s average of .7. Indiana followed with 1.1 and California with 1.0. A total of 15 states registered at a rate of .8 or .9 Pennsylvania was included in that list at .8. The states with the lowest rates of injuries included the District of Columbia and New York at .1, Hawaii at .2 and Louisiana at .3. Twelve states rounded out the list of the safest, with rates of .4, .5 and .6. No data were available for nine states.

The data doesn’t address the reasons for the differences between the states as to danger levels. Some states that might seem to be more rural and thus be gauged as more dangerous actually rated as safe, such as Louisiana and Alaska. In addition, the least safe and the safest state have the same percentage of workers in white collar jobs.

When an employee suffers an injury at work, he or she may be entitled to worker’s compensation. A personal injury lawyer might be able to help clients pursue a legal claim against their employer.

Source: Time, “The Most Dangerous States To Work In America—And The Most Dangerous Jobs To Have In Them“, Gary Belsky, July 23, 2013