Dangerous Wages

The difference in rates between native-born and foreign-born Hispanics accounts for the overall higher rate of Hispanic worker deaths. Native-born Hispanic workers actually have lower numbers of job-related deaths than the national average for all workers, but for foreign-born Hispanic workers, the rate was 5.9 deaths per 100,000 workers – 44 percent higher than the national average. These higher rates for foreign-born Hispanics skew the numbers for all Hispanic workers.

Unfortunately, Mexican-born workers in the U.S. account for the majority (two out of five) of job-related deaths among all foreign-born workers. The primary fatal event recorded for Mexican- born workers was “fall to lower level.” This was also the primary fatal event for El Salvadorean-born workers, who come in third in fatalities at 3 percent. It is interesting to note that the primary fatal event for all foreign-born workers was workplace homicide, not falling from heights.

Between 1992 and 2002, about onefourth of the work-related deaths among Hispanics happened in the construction industry, with one in five of all construction deaths involving Hispanics.

Foreign-born Hispanics were dying in the construction industry at a rate 3.5 times higher in 2002 than in 1992. In 1993, foreign-born workers accounted for about half of deaths involving Hispanic construction workers, but by 2002 that number had risen to nearly three out of every four.

Most of these fatal workplace injuries between 1992 and 2004 happened in states with traditionally large Hispanic populations – California, Texas, Florida, and New York. However, workplace fatalities are on the rise in states with the currently fastest-growing Hispanic populations— North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee.