Top 10 Most Costly Claims for Restoration Contractors

In 2018 — the most recent year for which statistically valid injury data is available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the National Academy of Social Insurance — workplace accidents and injuries that caused employees to miss six or more days of work cost U.S. employers nearly $62 billion. . Of that $62 billion, more than 82.5% (more than $51 billion) can be attributed to the ten leading causes of the most disabling work-related injuries.

Here is the countdown of the top 10 causes and direct costs of the most disabling U.S. workplace injuries.

10. Repetitive motions involving micro-tasks. This category represents 2.9% of the total and amounts to $1.82 billion. Some of these tasks may include a word processor who looks from the computer monitor to a document and back several times a day or the cashier at the local grocery store who is scanning and bagging groceries for several hours at a time.

9. Struck against object or equipment. This category of workplace injury applies to workers who are hurt by forcible contact or impact, for example, an office worker who bumps into a filing cabinet or an assembly line worker who stubs a toe on stacked parts. These injuries account for 3% of the total and $1.85 billion.

8. Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects. These injuries amount to 3.2%, or $1.97 billion of workplace injuries. They result from workers being caught in equipment or machinery that’s still running and in rolling, shifting, or sliding objects. Picture the scene in a movie in which wine barrels topple over, catching the bad guy beneath them, only in this case; it’s the employee whose job it may be to stack the barrels. Perhaps it’s the experienced worker who removes a machine guard to dislodge material that’s stuck and gets a finger caught when the machine starts moving again.

7. Slip or trip without fall. Occasionally, workers do slip or trip without hitting the ground. Think of the employee entering the workplace who slips on icy stairs but can grab the handrail to prevent hitting the ground. But holding the bar may cause the employee to injure his shoulder or wrench her knee.

Injuries in this category are 3.8% of the total and cost $2.35 billion.

6. Roadway incidents involving a motorized land vehicle. Accounting for 4.8% of injuries at the cost of $2.96 billion are motor vehicle accidents.

The worker may be the driver, a passenger, or a pedestrian, but the cause of the injury is an automobile, truck, or motorcycle.

5. Other exertions or bodily reactions. According to the BLS, these motions include bending, crawling, reaching, twisting, climbing, or stepping. Consider, for example, a roofing contractor’s employees who are continually climbing up and down ladders.

These injuries are 6.7% of the total, amounting to $4.15 billion.

4. Struck by object or equipment. This category covers a range of possible injuries, from being struck by an object dropped by a fellow worker to being caught in a swinging door or gate. Picture the construction worker on a scaffold dropping a hammer on the worker below.

These injuries account for $5.31 billion in costs, 8.6% of the total.

3. Falls to lower level. The roofer could fall to the ground from the roof or ladder, or an office worker standing on a stepstool, reaching for a heavy file box, could fall to the floor.

These injuries are 8.7% of the total, costing employers $5.40 billion.

2. Falls on the same level. The second most costly workplace injury, surprisingly, is a fall on the same level. Picture the employee walking through the office and falling over an uneven floor surface or someone leaning too far back in an office chair and toppling over.

These injuries, costing $10.17 billion, are 16.4% of the total.

1. Overexertion involving an outside source. According to the data, this category ranked as the leading cause of disabling injury, with costs reaching $15.08 billion and almost a quarter of the total (24.4%). The BLS explains that overexertion occurs when the physical effort that lifts pulls, pushes, holds, carries, or throws an object results in an injury.

The object being handled is often heavier than the weight that a worker should be taking, or the thing is mishandled—for example, lifting from a shelf that’s too high or in a cramped space.

Within the broad category of sprains, strains, and tears caused by overexertion, most incidents resulted specifically from overexertion in lifting.