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Background The present study aims to observe how societal indicators of workers’ values at the state-level are related to health and safety outcomes, particularly major injuries and fatalities in the U.S. Underscoring workforce flexibility and workability over workforce stability and safety might be indicative of the worth of workers which can be associated with occupational safety and health concerns. Methods Multiple regression analysis was adopted to examine how the state-level indicators of values on workers in terms of 1) minimum wage, using the data from 2015; 2) average of workers’ compensations for the loss of an arm, hand, leg, or foot in 2015 were prospectively associated with occupational fatality rates in 2016 and 2017. Socioeconomic contextual variables such as education level, GDP per capita, income gap, and population at the state-level were controlled for. Results The present study showed that state-level quantitative indicators of how workers are valued at work, namely minimum wage and workers’ compensation benefits, were significantly and negatively associated with fatality rates in the following year. Workers’ compensation benefits were significantly and negatively associated with fatality rates two years later, implying the lasting effect of this particular type of indicator of values on workers. Conclusions The present study illustrates the gap in how workers are valued across the U.S.. The study speaks to the importance of fostering culture where workers are adequately valued, cared about, and protected to prevent and curtail occupational fatality.

In order to deepen and broaden understanding on the occupational safety and health disparities between temporary and non-temporary workers, psychological and perceptual gaps between the two groups need to be carefully investigated, particularly in relation to risk taking behaviors. To this end, the present study showed the precarious nature of temporary employment in terms of perceived job security and perceived job control. Although the present study showed that risk perception is not significantly different across the temporary and non-temporary worker groups, temporary workers tended to perceive higher monetary benefits from potentially hazardous working opportunities and reported greater willingness to undertake the working opportunities than non-temporary workers. Temporary workers may be more likely to view the working opportunities in hazardous occupational settings as risks that are worthy to take. These findings need to be incorporated in the safety management of temporary workers to promote self-regulatory engagement in safer and healthier behaviors.

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