Cost of Injury

The True Price of a Fall: From a $6,629 Citation to a Life

The average OSHA fall-protection citation carries about $6,629 in penalties (current amounts) — and it is the smallest cost a fall imposes. This analysis builds the full cost cascade, from the citation to the injury, through OSHA's own Safety Pays multiplier, to the sales a company must generate to survive one fall — and, ultimately, to the 389 construction workers a year for whom the cost is a life.