The High Costs of Injuries on the Job

Workers’ Compensation is an insurance program that protects workers in the event of an injury sustained while working on the job. It provides benefits such as medical care, wage income, rehabilitation, and death benefits to help workers and their families through a difficult time.

Individual states have their own compensation programs for employees of private corporations and state and local governments. The U.S. Postal Service is covered by the Federal Employee’s Compensation Act (FECA). This program has been in existence since 1916 and covers three million federal employees around the world.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, the program paid $2.8 billion in benefits to 306,905 workers and survivors in 2010. This figure does not include compensation paid by individual states. Of the total compensation paid out in 2010 to federal employees and their families, the Postal Service had the largest number of FECA beneficiaries at 130,482, or 43% of the total.

The report does not go into the nature of the injuries, but it is clear that safety should always be of paramount importance in the performance of duties on the job.

What do you think is the cause of most work-related injuries?