1 per 45,000

What does this ratio represent?

1. OSHA inspectors per number of U.S. workers
2. OSHA inspections conducted each year per actual U.S. workplaces
3. OSHA citations issued per estimated number of violations that U.S. employers actually commit but don’t get cited for
4. Annual workplace fatalities per number of U.S. workers

Answer: A. The ratio of OSHA inspectors to U.S. workers is 1 to 45,000. According to the International Labor Organization, industrialized countries like the U.S. should have a minimum of one safety inspector per 10,000 workers. But the ratio is about to improve now that the Obama Administration has announced plans to hire about 100 new OSHA inspectors.

Note: I also wanted to include Canada in this item but for some reason the ILO statistics I used didn’t include Canada. If any of you SafetyXChange members know the ratio of inspectors to workers in Canada, please send me a note, glennd@bongarde.com.

Source: ILO, Strategies and Practice for Labour Inspection, 2006, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/gb/docs/gb297/pdf/esp-3.pdf

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