What Does a Recordable Incident Actually Cost You?
Calculate the direct and indirect cost of a workplace injury — and the additional sales it takes to cover it — using OSHA's own $afety Pays methodology. Free, no account required.
Enter your numbers
Based on one incident of this type.
Don't know it offhand? 3% is OSHA's own conservative default.
What this costs you
Total direct cost
$30,487
Indirect cost (×1.1)
$33,536
Total cost
$64,023
Additional sales needed to cover this
$2,134,090
At a 3% profit margin, this is how much extra revenue your company has to generate just to break even on this cost — it never shows up on the OSHA log, but it shows up on the P&L.
Every incident like this that Infranoto helps you prevent is money you keep.
See how the same pattern-finding that flags recordability issues also flags the near-misses that lead to costs like this.
Direct cost and indirect-cost-ratio data: OSHA $afety Pays Program (NCCI workers' comp claims data, 2015-2017 policy years).
The cost you don't see on the OSHA log
Your OSHA 300 log tracks whether an incident happened — not what it cost. The direct cost (medical treatment and wage replacement) is usually covered by workers' comp insurance, but the indirect costs — lost productivity, training a replacement, overtime, investigation time, equipment damage — come straight out of your company's bottom line.
OSHA built the $afety Pays Programto make that indirect cost visible, using real workers' compensation claims data. This calculator uses the same methodology.
The formula
Total direct cost = direct cost per incident × number of incidents Indirect cost = total direct cost × indirect cost ratio Total cost = total direct cost + indirect cost Additional sales needed = total cost × (100 / profit margin %)
FAQ
Where do these cost figures come from?
This calculator uses OSHA's own $afety Pays Program methodology and published direct-cost data, sourced from National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) workers' compensation claims. It's the same model OSHA built to help employers understand the true cost of an incident.
What's the difference between direct and indirect costs?
Direct costs are what your insurance actually pays out — medical treatment and wage replacement. Indirect costs are everything insurance doesn't cover: training a replacement, lost productivity, overtime to cover the gap, incident investigation time, equipment damage, and morale. OSHA's data shows indirect costs are often larger than the direct cost itself, especially for less severe injuries.
Why does the indirect-cost ratio get higher for smaller injuries?
A minor injury still consumes a fixed amount of supervisor time, paperwork, and schedule disruption — so that overhead is a much bigger multiple of a small claim than of a large one. That's why OSHA's manual-entry scale runs from 4.5x on costs under $3,000 down to 1.1x on costs of $10,000 or more.
What does "additional sales needed" actually mean?
It's the amount of new revenue your company would have to generate, at your current profit margin, just to offset the cost of the incident — because incident costs come out of profit, not revenue. It's a useful number for making the business case for safety investment to leadership.
This tool is for general informational purposes only and uses OSHA's published $afety Pays methodology and cost data. Actual costs vary by company, industry, and claim history — consult your insurer or finance team for figures specific to your business. Read our privacy policy.