When we think about workplace fatalities, it's natural that we think about cases like the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, which at this writing had caused more than 1000 fatalities . In the United States, we think about the West Fertilizer Co. explosion, which killed 14, including 10 firefighters. Or the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion. We think about disasters with fatalities in the double digits and dramatic visuals, in other words. And we do notice those stories. Many deaths on the job, though, are virtually ignored outside the circle of people directly affected. They happen in ones and twos, quietly, and the hazards or negligence or outright disdain for the lives of workers that cause them are punished only with fines, usually bargained down to shockingly low levels.

The AFL-CIO released its Death on the Job report this week, and the toll for the United States in 2011 was 4,693 workers killed on the job, an average of 13 every day. It's much harder to know how many died from occupational diseases, but the estimate is 50,000. Everyone's risk is not equal, with states having fatality rates ranging from 1.2 per 100,000 in New Hampshire to 12.4 per 100,000 in North Dakota, differences due partly to the mix of industries in those states; workers in agriculture or mining are at much more risk than workers in finance or education, obviously.

One category of workers at high risk stands out. Where the overall job fatality rate is 3.5 for every 100,000 workers:



Latino workers continue to be at increased risk of job fatalities, with a fatality rate of 4.0 per 100,000 workers in 2011. There were 749 fatal injuries among Latino workers, up from 707 in 2010. Sixty-eight percent of these fatalities (512 deaths) were among workers born outside the United States. Workers who are undocumented may be at particular risk facing abuse and exploitation and fearing retaliation if they raise concerns about unsafe working conditions.

Job fatality rates declined for years, but have been stalled for the past three years. Of course it's harder to reduce relatively low rates, but, as we'll discuss below the fold, the enforcement of workplace safety laws and the incentives for employers to do the right thing are weak.