Booting Earth Optimization System
Thank you for your patience. Your civilization is very important to us.
Thank you for your patience. Your civilization is very important to us.
Agency Report Card
Ensure safe and healthful working conditions
Ensure safe and healthful working conditions
2010 Deepwater Horizon — 11 workers killed. OSHA had no jurisdiction (offshore = different agency). ↗
Workplace fatality rate declined from 4.3 (2000) to 3.3 (2024) per 100,000 workers (a 23% drop; BLS changed its rate method in 2008) while OSHA's budget rose from $382M to $632M. However, the rate was already declining at the same pace before OSHA existed (from 61 per 100K in 1900 to 18 in 1970).
| Year | OSHA enacted appropriation (DOL appropriation history, fiscal year, nominal USD) | Fatal work injury rate (BLS CFOI; per 100,000 workers through 2007, per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers from 2008) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $382M | 4.3 |
| 2004 | $458M | 4.1 |
| 2008 | $486M | 3.7 |
| 2010 | $559M | 3.6 |
| 2012 | $565M | 3.4 |
| 2014 | $552M | 3.4 |
| 2016 | $553M | 3.6 |
| 2018 | $553M | 3.5 |
| 2020 | $582M | 3.4 |
| 2022 | $612M | 3.7 |
| 2024 | $632M | 3.3 |
“Real-time risk pricing beats paperwork compliance”
OSHA budget in 2024
Workplace fatality rate in 2024
Fatality-rate decline since 2000
Fatality-rate drop from 1900 to OSHA's creation in 1970
Did OSHA change the already-declining trajectory of workplace fatalities?
Did OSHA change the already-declining trajectory of workplace fatalities?
Workplace fatalities were ALREADY declining steeply before OSHA. Manufacturing injury rates dropped from 24.2 per million man-hours in 1926 to 15.2 in 1970 — a 37% decline BEFORE OSHA existed. Workplace deaths went from ~14,000/year in 1970 to ~5,283/year in 2023, but the pre-OSHA trend (driven by mechanization, safety engineering, and liability law) was already achieving similar rates of decline. Coal mining injury rates fell from 89.9 in 1931 to 42.6 in 1970 — a 53% reduction without OSHA.
Workplace fatalities were ALREADY declining steeply before OSHA. Manufacturing injury rates dropped from 24.2 per million man-hours in 1926 to 15.2 in 1970 — a 37% decline BEFORE OSHA existed. Workplace deaths went from ~14,000/year in 1970 to ~5,283/year in 2023, but the pre-OSHA trend (driven by mechanization, safety engineering, and liability law) was already achieving similar rates of decline. Coal mining injury rates fell from 89.9 in 1931 to 42.6 in 1970 — a 53% reduction without OSHA.
“Workplace deaths were declining at the same rate before OSHA as after. The decline from sixty-one to eighteen deaths per hundred thousand happened without any federal safety agency. Technology, liability law, and worker self-interest did the work. OSHA just took credit.”
On a well-run planet, this agency would have been deprecated centuries ago. Here is what replaces it.
Worker Safety Mutual — Occupational Safety and Health Administration