Declining Federal Oversight of Workplace Safety

An analysis of data by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) shows that under the Trump administration, in workplaces monitored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), workplace deaths have increased at the same time as the number of inspectors has decreased. NELP found an uptick in worker deaths on the job from 837 to 929 between fiscal years 2017 and 2018. When researchers assessed overall enforcement activity in terms of "enforcement units," which factor in complexity and frequency of inspections, they also discovered a "steady decline" in the intensity of enforcement. From fiscal 2016 to 2017, federal OSHA enforcement units fell from 42,900 to 41,829. The most recent data for 2018 show that enforcement activity continued to decline, dropping to 41,478 enforcement units. Meanwhile, from fiscal years 2016 to 2018, OSHA increased its "quick, non-weighted inspections" from 27,662 to 28,322. OSHA's staff has shrunk from more than 1,000 in 1982 to a 48-year low of 875 personnel in 2018. The drop seems largely a function of attrition and stagnation, not funding cuts. Sanctions in the highest-penalty category fell from 131 in 2016 to 66 in 2018, which NELP analyst Deborah Berkowitz said may not be due to the nature of the violations, but to the agency's lack of enforcement.

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