Jessica E. Martinez and Peter Dooley

Antonio Flores, a Cincinnati construction worker, still suffers the effects of a severe workplace injury from last December. Working without proper equipment for heavy lifting, he was hurt when a large pipe fell on him, breaking his back.

Flores, an immigrant from Nicaragua, lost his job after he was hurt. Now he is in pain, he says, from “bending down and making fast movements.”

Antonio is one of millions of workers in the United States who are injured on the job every year — his tale of both physical and economic pain is all too typical.

“I can’t do anything that requires strength, and I can’t walk for a long time either,” he says. “Sometimes I go to do these little side jobs. I have to pay rent and I don’t have enough.”

On Nov. 8, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 2.8 million non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses in privately-owned workplaces in 2022, a 7.5% increase from 2021. The data is based on self-reporting by employers, and experts who have looked at the numbers — from the U.S. Congress to the Government Accountability Office to academic authorities — agree that the agency significantly underestimates the real toll of pain and suffering.

The Government Accountability Office, for example, found that fewer than half of employers fully report injuries and illnesses as required by federal law. Firms also use various subtle and not-so-subtle tactics to discourage workers from reporting.

One common, insidious practice: A pizza party or some other incentive if no injuries are recorded during a selected time period. Rather than encourage safe work practices, this creates pressure for workers to hide safety problems they may be having on the job. Do you want to be the one who takes food out of your co-workers’ mouths, or money out of their pockets?

While we don’t know for sure how many workers are actually injured every year, we do know that far too many — like Antonio — are never fully compensated.

Injured workers, according to Chris Godfrey of the U.S. Department of Labor, “are at great risk of falling into poverty because of the failure of state workers’ compensation systems to provide them with adequate benefits.”

Workers’ compensation is a state-by-state system, with no minimum national standards. When workers’ compensation laws were established in the United States during the first half of the 20th century, the concept was a “grand bargain.” Employers would be relieved of potentially huge liability from tort lawsuits, and workers would receive certain, swift fair compensation if they got hurt on the job.

This “grand bargain” has turned out to be a raw deal for workers, with payment being anything but swift or certain. Antonio never heard back about his initial Ohio workers’ comp claim; with help from the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center, he contacted an attorney to get a possible settlement with his former employer.

Separate insurance systems in all 50 states amount to a dangerous race to the bottom. A 2015 investigation by NPR and ProPublica found that “employers are now paying the lowest rates for workers’ comp than at any time since the 1970s.” Thirty-three out of 50 states, ProPublica reported, “have passed laws that reduce benefits, create hurdles to getting medical care or make it more difficult to qualify for workers’ comp.”

It’s painfully obvious that we owe more — much more — to injured workers. Employers will advocate fiercely against paying even one more penny to those maimed or mutilated as a result of poor workplace conditions. But our current system creates little incentive to invest in injury prevention; it’s cheap to injure workers when there are few consequences.

Here’s a better idea: Let’s treat injured workers with the benefits, dignity and respect they deserve — and create safety programs that can prevent injuries and illnesses before they happen.

An effective health and safety committee, with real input from workers and full commitment and resources from management, can help identify and eliminate workplace hazards. Workers must be fully engaged and empowered because they know their jobs and know what conditions cause the greatest risk.

Creating the safest possible workplace isn’t cheap. It may require adding staff, buying new equipment or modifying existing work practices. But the National Safety Council estimates the true cost of workplace injuries at $167 billion a year. Preventing injuries and illnesses before they happen is surely a path to better outcomes — both for employers and for workers like Antonio, who isn’t sure how he’ll pay next month’s rent.

Jessica E. Martinez is co-executive director and Peter Dooley is a program and technical support specialist at the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.