Lansner: Texas workers more likely to die on the job
By JONATHAN LANSNER
2012-05-10
I ventured into emotional territory last week, the California-vs.-Texas economic debate.
I had read
a survey of CEOs that claimed Texas was the best place to do business – and California the worst – based on a host of variables including costs and regulatory burdens.
My column noted that Texas and the other states ranked in the CEO's Top 10 had decidedly lower income levels and higher poverty rates than the boss types' least-favorite states. Let's just say, politely, that a few of my readers thought I was nuts.
This week, I see that a survey of small business owners draws basically the same conclusion: Texas is at the top as a place to do business – and California got a failing grade – based on cost, regulation and overall opportunities.
Yes, CEOs and business owners are entitled to their opinions. Yes, I understand their profit-driven and cost-efficiency focus. But while regulation and tax policies are probably out-of-whack in numerous instances, they aren't all bad.
Let's ponder a very harsh bit of math that suggests certain challenges within Texas' much-lauded business climate.
U.S. labor regulators publish an annual accounting of workplace deaths. For 2010, most recent data available, Texas had the most workplace deaths in the nation – 456 fatalities. California ranked No. 2 with 302 deaths.
I wanted to see how these two states, relatively speaking – fared in this unnerving benchmark for workplace safety conditions over a longer timeframe. So I tossed federal data into my trusty spreadsheet and wondered, mathematically, if Texas -- and its purported low regulatory burden – is as safe a collective workplace as California, the alleged nanny state.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 3,849 workplace deaths in Texas from 2003 through 2010 – the years available in the online database. That was 10 percent higher than the 3,589 workers who died at work in California in the same period.
That's not a negligible difference when you note that California – despite all its faults – has a far larger workforce than Texas. (Even if in this period, Texas jobs grew 10 percent as California payrolls shrank by 3 percent!)
So when you look at workplace deaths vs. the BLS count of all non-farm workers by state, Texas had 4.79 fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2003-2008 vs. California's 3.07. Basically, Texas workers died on the job at roughly a 50 percent faster pace than Californians...
For the full article, go to:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/texas-353624-california-percent.html
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