Heat and Worker Health
Abstract
Extreme heat negatively impacts cognition, learning, and task performance. With increasing global temperatures, workers may therefore be at increased risk of work-related injuries and illness. This study estimates the effects of temperature on worker health using records spanning 1985-2020 from an Australian mandatory insurance scheme. High temperatures are found to cause significantly more claims, particularly among manual workers in outdoor-based industries. These adverse effects have not diminished across time, with the largest effect observed for the 2015-2020 period, indicating increasing vulnerability to heat. Within occupations, the workers most adversely affected by heat are female, older-aged and higher-earning. Finally, results from firm-level panel analyses show that the percentage increase in claims on hot days is largest at "safer" firms.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2301.11554,
title = {Heat and Worker Health},
author = {Andrew Ireland and David Johnston and Rachel Knott},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.11554},
year = {2024}
}