Small businesses are safer, study shows

Small businesses with fewer than 100 workers, which employ 55 percent of American workers, have been thought of as the highest risk for fatalities, but a Rand Corp. study released this week challenges that theory.

The report, based on the analysis of 17,000 workplace deaths between 1992 and 2001, says the highest fatalities occur at small worksites within medium sized businesses with 20 to 999 employees.

Small single site business are actually safer, because the owner is on the premises to watch over employees. “An on-site owner feels more responsibility to try to avoid injuring workers than a hired manager would,” said John Mendeloff, a professor of public policy at the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study.

Some policymakers have argued that the burden of health, safety and environmental regulations fall too heavily on small businesses, which have less ability to keep up with regulatory requirements. These results suggest that the safety records of single establishment firms may justify lighter regulatory intervention. OSHA may focus more effort at middle-sized firms that have small establishments, because they present the highest fatality risks.