Highlights from the 2024 Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Annual Report

Worker injuries increased in the past year, but fatalities decreased

In 2024, there were 165,985 worker injuries and illnesses in Pennsylvania, a two percent increase from the 162,694 injuries and illnesses in 2023. The 2024 number represents a one percent decrease from the number of worker injuries and illnesses in 2022.

Fatalities decreased by 11 percent from 84 in 2023 to 75 in 2024. Since 2013, annual worker fatalities have ranged in number from 65 to 85. In the decade before that, there were between 100 and 154 annual worker fatalities, which was a decreasing range from the decade before.

Thankfully, Pennsylvania workers today are less likely to die from a work injury than they were for most of the 20th and early 21st centuries. However, 75 fatalities are still 75 too many, because 75 families last year lost a loved one to a tragic injury that likely could have been prevented.

Various factors have likely contributed to these decreased figures, including stronger workplace safety regulations, employers’ increased focus on worker safety (thanks, in part, to claimants’ attorneys and worker advocacy groups), improved safety equipment, and more effective healthcare that prevents injuries or illnesses from becoming fatal. And, even though we are likely past the post-COVID-19 remote work peak, the increasing number of remote workers over time has led to fewer workers at job sites and on the commonwealth’s roads who are at risk of injury.

Strains and sprains were the most common type of injury, while overexertion was the leading cause of injury

Strain/sprain injuries accounted for 35.1 percent of total cases reported in 2024, while contusions, crushing, and bruising injuries represented 22.1 percent of all reported injuries. Cuts, lacerations, and punctures made up 16 percent of injuries.

The upper extremities (including hands, arms, and shoulders) represented the area of the body most frequently injured, accounting for 37.7 percent of cases reported in 2024. Similarly, 33.8 percent of sprain/strain cases and 30.7 percent of contusions, crushes, and bruises also affected the upper extremities. Injuries to the lower extremities (including knees, legs, and feet) represented 22.5 percent of all worker injuries. Head injuries represented 13.1 percent of worker injuries, while back injuries represented 11.3 percent.

Overexertion (lifting, pulling, pushing, etc.) was the leading cause of injury in 2024, representing 24.5 percent of all injuries. The next leading injury cause was workers struck by objects, accounting for 22.2 percent of injuries, followed by struck-against accidents, at 11.4 percent of all injuries.

Safety equipment, strong organizational safety protocols, and government regulations can prevent traumatic workplace accidents, but the high rate of overexertion suggests that employers force workers to overexert themselves to meet quotas or other performance metrics. If employers staffed shifts appropriately, they’d likely see a positive return on their investment because their workers’ compensation premiums and worker-injury-related legal fees would likely decrease, while their workers’ combined productivity would increase.

A caveat to these statistics is that insurance carriers make these injury classifications. Naturally, they’re often conservative because insurers classify injuries soon after they occur, and without diagnostic testing. That’s why it’s not uncommon for an injury initially classified as a mild injury to, upon further testing and review, be diagnosed by a doctor as a severe one.

Workers in the education/health and trade/transportation sectors were the ones most often injured, as were young workers

More than half of all injuries and illnesses reported in 2024 took place in the “Education & Health Services” and “Trade & Transportation” sectors. There were 45,685 injuries and illnesses in the former sector (representing 27.5 percent of all injuries and illnesses reported), and 44,111 injuries and illnesses in the latter (representing 26.6 percent of injuries and illnesses reported).

Within the “Education & Health Services” sector, the “Health Care & Social Assistance” sub-sector had the highest number of injuries, with 31,580. Within the “Trade & Transportation” sector, the “Trade” sub-sector had the highest number of injuries, with 28,182.

The highest rates of injuries per 1,000 workers were in the “Public Administration” sector (49 injuries per 1,000 workers), the “Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting” sector (41.3 injuries), and the “Manufacturing” sector (38 injuries). The total injury rate for all Pennsylvania workers was 27 injuries per 1,000 workers.

Workers in the 25–29 age group sustained the most injuries in 2024 (20,051 cases), representing 12.1 percent of total work injuries and illnesses. Workers in the 30–34 age group followed with 11.6 percent (19,247), and workers aged 35-39 represented 10.3 percent (17,116). The median age of all injured workers in 2024 was 40.4 years.

The largest number of fatalities, 14, was reported in the 65 and over age group, followed by 11 fatalities in the 55-59 age group. In 2023, workers in the 50-54 age group sustained the highest number of fatalities.

Concerning the industries with the most injuries, trade, transportation, healthcare, education, public service, and manufacturing rank among the top industries within Pennsylvania’s economy. Thus, it’s no surprise that so many workers within those industries suffered work-related injuries or illnesses.

As for the age-based statistics, many younger workers injure themselves because they have not yet learned how to protect themselves against injury. As for the higher fatality rates among older workers, it’s understandable that older workers might rely too much on their experience to keep them out of harm’s way. In the process, they may cut corners on safety precautions. In addition, the fatality rates in older age groups may reflect the growing number of older adults remaining in the workforce because of financial pressures.

Claim petitions slightly decreased, while the number of mediations increased

In 2024, 37,234 petitions were assigned to Workers’ Compensation Judges (not remands), compared to 37,791 in 2023 and 35,110 in 2022. The 2024 petitions included 8,549 claim petitions, 5,745 penalty petitions, 4,650 petitions to seek approval of compromise and release, 4,628 petitions to terminate compensation benefits, 3,346 petitions to review compensation benefits, and 2,340 petitions to suspend compensation. Also, the Workers’ Compensation Office of Adjudication conducted 8,426 mediations in 2024 compared to 7,851 in 2023.

That claimants’ counsel filed 67 penalty petitions for every 100 claim petitions shows that Pennsylvania’s injured workers are not receiving the workers’ compensation benefits they are legally entitled to because of actions taken by their employer or the employer’s insurer. This rate (which was 65 per 100 in 2023) shows the lengths employers, insurers, and their counsel will go to prevent workers from receiving the workers’ compensation benefits Pennsylvania law provides them.

Workers’ compensation indemnity costs, in real dollars, decreased

The total amount of workers’ compensation (including indemnity and medical compensation) paid in 2023, the latest available year, was about $2.8 billion. This is a slight increase from the total amounts in 2021 and 2022, which each totaled around $2.68 billion. However, $2.68 billion in 2021 and 2022 dollars is approximately $3.01 and $2.79 billion, respectively, in 2023 dollars.

Self-insured employers paid $610 million of combined indemnity and medical compensation paid, or 21.8 percent of the total paid. The State Workers’ Insurance Fund paid over $79 million, or 2.8 percent of total indemnity and medical compensation paid. Group self-insurance funds paid over $59 million, or 2.1 percent of the total. Altogether, the four groups in 2023 paid $1.47 billion in indemnity and over $1.32 billion in medical compensation.

These statistics contradict the rhetoric we hear from employers and workers’ compensation insurers about the supposed increasing costs of providing workers’ compensation insurance.

Required reading for players in Pennsylvania’s workers’ compensation world

Once again, the 2024 Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Safety Annual Report is chock full of insightful statistics for anyone in Pennsylvania interested in how the commonwealth’s workers’ compensation system operates. Armed with the report’s statistics and the inferences they can draw based on them, I’m confident that readers will walk away with a better understanding of how Pennsylvania’s workers’ compensation system operates and ways to improve its efficiency and its ability to better serve Pennsylvania’s injured workers.

Jerry M. Lehocky is a founding partner of Pond Lehocky Giordano Inc., the largest workers’ compensation and Social Security disability law firm in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the United States. He can be contacted at jlehocky@pondlehocky.com.

Reprinted with permission from the November 27, 2025 edition of The Legal Intelligencer © 2025 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-257-3382 or reprints@alm.com.