Racial/ethnic and gender differences in individual workplace injury risk trajectories: 1988-1998

Objectives. I examined workplace injury risk over time and across racial/ethnic and gender groups to observe patterns of change and to understand how occupational characteristics and job mobility influence these changes.Methods. I used hierarchical generalized linear models to estimate individual workplace injury and illness risk over time (“trajectories”) for a cohort of American workers who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1988–1998).Results. Significant temporal variation in injury risk was observed across racial/ethnic and gender groups. At baseline, White men had a high risk of injury relative to the other groups and experienced the greatest decline over time. Latino men demonstrated a pattern of lower injury risk across time compared with White men. Among both Latinos and non-Latino Whites, women had lower odds of injury than did men. Non-Latino Black women''s injury risk was similar to Black men''s and greater than that for both Latino and non-Latino White women. Occupational characteristics and job mobility partly explained these differences.Conclusions. Disparities between racial/ethnic and gender groups were dynamic and changed over time. Workplace injury risk was associated with job dimensions such as work schedule, union representation, health insurance, job hours, occupational racial segregation, and occupational environmental hazards.Employers reported 5.2 million nonfatal workplace injuries to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2001.¹ Although workplace injuries are common and account for 30% of medically treated injuries in the United States,² few studies have examined racial/ethnic or gender disparities in workplace injury outcomes. Virtually nothing is known about how individual workplace injury risk changes across occupations or how racial/ethnic and gender disparities in risk change over time.Men and women belonging to a racial/ethnic minority are less likely to hold jobs in professional or managerial occupations, have lower wages,³ and are concentrated in sectors of the economy characterized by more-hazardous working conditions,⁴ such as agriculture, domestic service,^5,6 and hospital aide work,⁷ compared with their White counterparts. For these reasons, one might expect rates of workplace injury to be higher among these workers and perhaps different across specific racial/ethnic and gender groups. Despite these disparities, few studies have addressed racial/ethnic and gender subgroup differences in workplace injury outcomes. The existing literature on race/ethnicity and workplace injury is inconsistent, sometimes finding a disparity^5,8 and sometimes finding no disparity between racial/ethnic majority and minority workers.^9,10 Findings for gender are more conclusive; women consistently report fewer workplace injuries than do men.¹¹Few studies have examined men and women of color as separate subgroups, even though race/ethnicity and gender jointly determine labor market position. This omission is problematic because previous research has found that race/ethnicity and gender interact to produce different employment outcomes for men and women of color that are not apparent in additive models.¹² The few exceptions that present data jointly by race/ethnicity and gender rely on data from the 1980s⁵ or focus on single industries.^6,7 As a notable exception, an analysis of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data revealed that Black men and women missed more days of work after an injury compared with Whites.⁹Over the course of a working life, workers may be able to move out of risky jobs and, thus, decrease their risk of injury. Because of the strong influence of race/ethnicity and gender on economic outcomes and upward mobility,^3,13 disadvantaged groups, namely women and minorities, may be less able to move out of risky jobs. Testing this hypothesis was the focus of my analysis.Analyses of panel data are invaluable in the study of workplace injury disparities and changes over time. Because most previous research was cross-sectional in nature and often relied on officially reported cases or on case studies, it could not address research questions about patterns of change for individuals. Some recent studies used panel data from the NLSY⁹ to examine workplace injury, but none have used trajectory analysis to examine individual racial/ethnic and gender disparities over time or the effects of job mobility on workplace injury risk.Characteristics of jobs and occupations that correlate with race/ethnicity, gender, and workplace injuries were control variables in my study. Because minority workers disproportionately work rotating shifts and nonstandard hours,¹⁴ receive lower wages, and work in more-hazardous occupations, these factors may account for potential racial/ethnic and gender differences in workplace injury trajectories. Racially segregated work is a potential risk factor for workplace injury,⁴ although no previous studies of workplace injury included measures of occupational racial segregation as predictors of individual workplace injury. Union representation and health insurance benefits are linked to workplace injury risk, because risky jobs in some sectors are represented by unions organized around health and safety issues. These factors are associated with workplace injury, and changes along these dimensions could account for changes in racial/ethnic or gender differences in workplace injury over time.I used nationally representative panel data from the NLSY to estimate individual workplace injury and illness risks over time (“trajectories”) during a 10-year period. I sought to answer 2 research questions. First, are individual workplace injury trajectories modified by race/ethnicity or gender? I expected men of color to fare worse and face the highest risk of injury over time, and I expected women of color to have more injuries compared with non-Latino White women. Second, does job mobility account for any observed racial/ethnic and gender differences in individual time trajectories? Because different labor market characteristics are associated with race/ethnicity and gender and with workplace injury, I hypothesized that job mobility would account for racial/ethnic and gender differences in workplace injury trajectories.