Compensating Wage Differentials for Fatal Injury Risk in Australia, Japan, and the United States.

Our research infers the effects of institutionalized wage setting and length worker-firm attachment by comparing estimated compensating wage differentials for fatal injury risk in Japanese, Australian, and U.S. manufacturing. Hedonic labor market equilibrium regressions for Japan reveal a statistically fragile compensating wage differential of 0 percent to 1.4 percent for exposure to the average fatality risk compared to employment in a perfectly safe workplace. Australian workers receive a statistically robust 2.5 percent estimated wage premium. Using new data on work-related fatalities, we find a 1 percent compensating wage differential in U.S. manufacturing that becomes more positive and statistically less significant as data are aggregated. Copyright 1991 by Kluwer Academic Publishers