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The 2025 Workplace Safety Index: What Safety Managers Need to Know (And Do About It)

Toby Graham

August 6, 2025

In 2022, U.S. businesses spent $58.78 billion on workplace injuries. That’s billion with a B. And that’s just the direct costs—medical expenses and lost wages. It doesn’t include the productivity losses, overtime costs, or the human toll these injuries take on your workers and their families.

As a safety manager, you’re tasked with preventing these injuries while juggling limited resources, competing priorities, and the daily pressures of keeping operations running. Where do you even start?

The Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (WSI) offers a data-driven answer. For 25 years, this comprehensive study has tracked the most costly workplace injuries, giving safety professionals like you a roadmap for where to focus your efforts.

Let’s break down what the 2025 WSI tells us—and more importantly, what you can do about it.

The Big Picture: Understanding the Top 10

Here’s a sobering fact: just 10 types of injuries account for 86.6% of all workplace injury costs. That’s $50.9 billion concentrated in a handful of preventable incidents.

The top 10 culprits are:

• Overexertion involving outside sources ($13.70B – 23.3%) – Think lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
• Falls on same level ($10.52B – 17.9%) – Slips, trips, and falls on walking surfaces
• Struck by object or equipment ($5.81B – 9.9%) – Getting hit by falling tools, moving vehicles, or flying debris
• Falls to lower level ($5.78B – 9.8%) – Falls from ladders, scaffolds, roofs, or loading docks
• Other exertions or bodily reactions ($3.90B – 6.6%) – Reaching, bending, or slipping without falling
• Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles ($2.84B – 4.8%) – Crashes during work-related driving
• Slip or trip without fall ($2.60B – 4.4%) – Near-misses that still cause injury
• Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects ($2.16B – 3.7%) – Getting caught in machinery or between objects
• Repetitive motions involving microtasks ($1.83B – 3.1%) – Injuries from repeated movements
• Struck against object or equipment ($1.73B – 2.9%) – Walking into objects or bumping against equipment

The True Cost Calculator

When budgeting for safety initiatives, remember that direct costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Research suggests indirect costs multiply the impact by 2-5x:

A $50,000 injury could easily cost your company $150,000-$250,000 total.

Breaking Down the Top 3 Cost Drivers

Let’s dig deeper into the three most expensive injury types. Understanding these can help you spot risks before they become statistics.

Overexertion: The $13.7 Billion Problem

Overexertion injuries happen in every industry, every day. Your warehouse worker lifting a heavy box. Your nurse repositioning a patient. Your construction crew moving materials. These aren’t dramatic accidents—they’re routine tasks gone wrong.

Falls on Same Level: The Growing Threat

Here’s what should worry you: falls on same level have increased from averaging $5.5 billion (12.4% of costs) in the early 2000s to $10.1 billion (17.2%) in recent years. These “simple” falls are becoming more costly, not less.

Struck by Object: Hidden in Plain Sight

“Struck by” injuries often involve everyday equipment and materials. A wrench dropped from height. A forklift backing up. Lumber sliding off a stack. These incidents happen fast, but they’re rarely random.

Industry-Specific Insights: Find Your Focus

While the overall top 10 provides valuable guidance, your industry has its own risk profile. Eight industries account for 86.4% of all workers’ compensation losses, and each has distinct patterns.

Know Your Industry’s Top 5

Notice the patterns? While the same injury types appear across industries, their intensity varies dramatically. Construction workers face “falls to lower level” as their #1 risk, while in manufacturing and transportation, overexertion dominates at nearly 24% and 30% respectively.

Turning Data into Action: Your Safety Roadmap

Knowledge without action won’t prevent a single injury. Here’s how to transform these insights into a practical safety strategy.

How Technology and Expertise Can Help

Managing multiple safety initiatives while keeping up with daily operations is challenging. You need force multipliers—tools and expertise that extend your reach and impact.

This is where Novara comes in. We help safety managers like you:

• Streamline incident tracking and analysis – Spot trends before they become costly patterns
• Deliver targeted training – Address your specific high-risk areas with engaging, effective content
• Automate inspections – Catch hazards consistently across all shifts and locations
• Access expert guidance – Get answers when you need them, not after an incident

The result? Safety managers using Novara report spending less time on paperwork and more time on proactive safety improvements that actually prevent injuries.

The Good News: Progress is Possible

While the persistence of these injury types might feel discouraging, the data also contains signs of hope. Smart safety programs can move the needle.

Consider “struck by object” injuries—through better training, improved storage systems, and consistent use of PPE like hard hats and safety glasses, many companies have dramatically reduced these incidents. The same goes for falls from height in construction, where comprehensive fall protection programs have saved countless lives.

The key? Sustained focus on the fundamentals: training, hazard identification, and creating a culture where safety is everyone’s job. Your workplace can achieve similar results with the right approach.

Your Next Steps

Ready to tackle your workplace’s biggest safety challenges? Here’s what to do today:

1. Download the full WSI report for deeper insights into your industry
2. Conduct a focused safety audit on your industry’s top 5 injury causes
3. Identify one high-impact improvement you can implement this month
4. Consider how technology can multiply your efforts and extend your influence

Remember: you’re not just preventing injuries. You’re protecting livelihoods, preserving families, and proving that a safe workplace is an achievable goal.

Want to see how Novara can help you tackle your biggest safety challenges? Let’s talk about your specific needs and goals.

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