To those of us who believe that health and safety standards are essential to protecting workers and others from hazards, it should come as no surprise that a recent study by two business school professors shows that OSHA inspections are effective in reducing injuries and illnesses among workers and workers’ compensation costs. The study echoes similar findings by Washington State’s Safety & Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP) program. Despite this empirical evidence, don’t expect Big Business or its allies to let up on their campaign to repeal those safeguards or weaken their enforcement.

A study recently published in Science magazine compared the experience of more than 400 firms that had been inspected by California OSHA (Cal OSHA) with more than 400 firms that were eligible but had not been inspected. The authors found that “within high hazard industries in California, inspected workplaces reduced their injury claims by 9.4 per cent and their workers’ compensation costs by 26%.” On average, inspected firms saved $355,000. The authors found “no discernible impact” on profits from compliance with Cal OSHA rules.

Washington’s SHARP program made similar findings. SHARP analyzed the workers’ compensation experience of firms in the year following a safety and health inspection, and its research covers a 10-year period. SHARP researchers found that companies that were inspected had a 20 percent greater drop in serious injuries than did companies that were not inspected.

Big Business frequently critiques the effectiveness and costs of regulation, but that criticism is empty rhetoric. And, even though we already knew that strong workplace standards, effectively enforced, protect workers from harm and reduce workers’ compensation costs for employers, we now have empirical evidence to support that view.