Contractor Health and Safety: Benefits of OSHA Training Requirements on City-Funded Projects
Report by New Economy for Working Houston - May 2025
Summary
To help curb the high rates of injuries and fatalities in Houston’s construction industry, New Economy for Working Houston (NEW Houston) recommends that the City of Houston adopt stronger baseline protections for workers on city-funded projects. One of the simplest and most practical protections is to require all contractors on city projects to provide and pay for OSHA 10 and 30 safety training for their employees.
OSHA 10 is a 10-hour training program for entry-level workers. The OSHA 30 program is a more comprehensive and in-depth 30-hour training program for experienced workers and supervisors. Both training programs cover many critical topics, including hazard communication, electrical safety, fire safety, machine guarding, and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Safety training, alone, is not enough to ensure workplace safety, but requiring all city contractors to provide and pay for safety training is measure proven to both decrease workplace injuries and fatalities for workers and reduce risks and costs to employers. NEW Houston recommends that the City adopt this best practice of requiring contractors on all publicly funded projects to provide OSHA 10 and 30 training to their employers at no cost to the employees. This will lead to better outcomes for workers, employers, and communities.
Construction Industry Snapshot
The construction industry is a significant part of the Texan economy, contributing approximately $137 billion to the state's GDP. The construction industry employs around 232,400 people just in the Houston metro area. In 2024 alone, $35.9 billion in contracts were awarded in the Houston construction industry, more than a 30 percent increase over the $28 billion awarded in 2023. However, even as the construction industry has steadily grown, it has been accompanied by the tragic and preventable injuries and deaths of construction workers.
For the better part of a decade, Texas has led the country in workplace fatalities and injuries. In 2023, the state had 564 workplace fatalities, far outpacing comparable states; the nearest was California, with 439 workplace fatalities, in a state whose population is 26% larger than Texas’ population.
The Texas construction industry accounted for more than 9,400 nonfatal injuries and 124 deaths in 2023, accounting for 28.2% of Texas’ workplace fatalities that year. This figure may be low: An in-depth survey study of the risks to workers in major metro areas found that federal data on non-fatal injuries significantly undercounts the number of workers injured on construction sites, at approximately 2 workers out of 100.
The Houston construction industry is particularly dangerous. A 2023 survey of hundreds of Houston-based workers found a 12.2% non-fatal injury rate for construction workers in Houston, more than six times the federal estimated rate.
This high injury rate likely explains the disproportionate share of uncompensated care costs for construction workers. Construction workers in Texas make up 6 percent of the workforce, but data from one Fort Worth hospital showed that construction workers account for 18 percent of work-related uncompensated care costs. According to a leading workers’ compensation provider in Texas, the average cost of medical care for an injured construction worker is double the average cost for a workplace injury. Construction workers in Texas have the lowest return to work rate across all industries, highlighting the long-term care needs construction workers often face after injury.
The death rate of construction workers in the Houston metro area has been particularly alarming. A number of horrific and preventable accidents have killed construction workers in the area in recent years, ranging from falling equipment to collapsing trenches.
Texas remains the only state in the country that does not mandate that employers provide workers’ compensation insurance. But this does not mean that employers fully avoid financial consequences when their employees are injured. According to OSHA and the Texas Department of Insurance, employers spend over $1 billion weekly on direct costs related to serious nonfatal workplace injuries. In 2021, the average cost per medically consulted injury across all industries was approximately $42,000, and the cost per employee fatality exceeded $1.3 million. According to a 2002 study, the estimated average cost of a non-fatal injury in the construction industry was $42,093; the estimated average cost of a construction fatality was $3,954,669. Adjusted for inflation, the present-day estimated average cost is $73,585 for a non-fatal injury and $6,913,366 for a construction fatality.
When OSHA does find an employer liable for creating dangerously unsafe working conditions that result in injuries or death, it can lead to significant financial penalties. One Houston-area contractor was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars after ignoring safety measures that could have prevented the death of a teenage construction employee.
Unfortunately, OSHA regulatory enforcement lacks the necessary funding to ensure broader compliance across the industry. As a result, tIn the absence of a stronger federal allocation of resources, other local government bodies can and should use their powers to provide employee training and common-sense safety protocols to reduce these injury rates and alleviate the hardships workers and their families face while helping businesses adopt best practices that minimize risks and costs.
Overview of the OSHA Safety Training Program
The OSHA 10-hour and 30-hour safety courses provide essential training to improve workplace safety.
The 10-hour course is designed for entry-level workers. It focuses on recognizing, avoiding, and preventing common hazards and educating workers about their rights and employer responsibilities.
The 30-hour course is intended for supervisors or workers with safety responsibilities. It offers in-depth, industry-specific training in a broader range of hazards. These programs help create safer work environments by equipping workers and supervisors with critical safety knowledge.
An OSHA 10/30 health and safety training program benefits both employees and employers. Not only does it prevent workplace injuries and illnesses, it will also improve compliance with laws and regulations; reduce employers’ costs, including significant reductions in workers’ compensation premiums; increase productivity; and enhance overall business operations.
Benefits of OSHA Training to Workers
OSHA training for workers helps drastically reduce the chances of being injured or killed in the workplace. Since its introduction in 1971, OSHA has reduced workplace injuries by 40 percent. A longitudinal study on the effect of OSHA 10 and 30 safety training for construction workers found that these trainings reduced workers’ compensation injury claims by 13 percent, and the safety benefits were even higher for apprentices.
Implementing OSHA training cultivates a culture of safety and responsibility by ensuring that all workers are educated on the proper procedures and requirements for a safe work environment.
Benefits of OSHA Training to Employers
Employers reap significant benefits when their employees receive proper OSHA safety training, including reducing their rates of injury and illness, lowering their employee turnover rate, and increasing productivity and profitability.
OSHA training reduces illness or injury-related lost productivity, which in 2020 cost employers $575 billion and 1.5 billion days in total.
Employers bear a weekly cost of $1 billion in expenses due to serious non-fatal injuries and are liable to pay massive fines for not adhering to OSHA safety requirements. Maximum penalties for serious violations are up to $15,625 per violation and $156,259 for wilful or repeated violations.
A 2013 study on the economic and social benefits of OSHA-10 training in the construction industry found that “[w]ith an average cost of $210 per trainee and savings per incident well over $100,000, the cost-benefit ratio is an extremely positive number.”
Studies on the direct costs of injuries and illnesses show that employers save between $4 and $6 for every $1 invested; some studies show that the indirect cost can be up to ten times that of the direct costs.
Studies have found a strong correlation between the survival rate of small businesses and strong workplace health and safety practices. Businesses that failed within two years of their founding had an average injury rate of 9.71, while companies that survived more than five years had an average injury rate of 3.89.
Local Precedents
Following Hurricane Harvey, the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department adopted OSHA 10 & 30 training requirements as part of its Harvey Multifamily Program.
In January of 2023, Harris County adopted a Harris County Contractor Safety Record Policy that included OSHA 10 & 30 training requirements.
In September 2023 Harris Health incorporated OSHA training requirements in their Skilled Trade Protections for Bond-Funded Construction Contract policy.
Conclusion
Workplace safety programs are a common sense improvement to the City’s procurement practices and a strategic investment in the well-being of employees, contractors, and communities. OSHA training will create a safer environment for workers on city projects, reduce injuries and fatalities on city-funded projects, and decrease costs associated with injuries for contractors and taxpayers. The City of Houston can and should take sensible measures to protectworkers, beginning by passing a resolution to require that employers provide and pay for OSHA 10 & 30 training for all workers on city-funded projects.
