The data are used to identify and correct hazards in the workplace. National and State policy makers use the survey as an indicator of the occupational safety and health conditions across industries and kinds of workers. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) uses the statistics to help determine where additional measures are needed to improve safety programs and to measure the effectiveness of the 1970 act in reducing work-related injuries and illnesses. Both labor and management use the estimates to design and evaluate safety programs. Other users include insurance carriers involved in workers' compensation, industrial hygienists, manufacturers of safety equipment, researchers, and others concerned with job safety and health.
With the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.
The SOII survey is not part of OSHA, but the survey does use OSHA record-keeping guidelines to determine what injuries or illnesses should be reported. Businesses that are selected for participation in the SOII survey are required to reply to the survey regardless of whether or not they are exempt from keeping OSHA records of workplace injuries/illnesses.
The SOII program is based on an annual survey of employers, whose responses are used to provide estimates of workplace injuries and illnesses based on OSHA record-keeping guidelines. Statistics are provided at the statewide level and can be compared to national data as well as data from other states. Annual data can also be compared to historical data.
State Workers’ Compensation programs also track workplace injury and illness data but do not use the same record keeping guidelines as the SOII survey. Workers’ compensation programs are counts (rather than a survey); however, reporting requirements and laws and are not consistent from state to state, making cross-state comparisons invalid.