Probably Not, the Latest Amazon Work Injury Statistics Reveal
Amazon was supposed to be “Earth’s Safest Place to Work” this year, according to promises Jeff Bezos made back in 2021. That’s because Bezos vowed to reduce Amazon’s worker injury rate by 50% by 2025. Instead, however, the latest report from industry watchdogs reveals that Amazon “has not made meaningful progress on its goals,” nor has it “become a safer employer than its peers.”
Here’s why, with a closer look at:
- Amazon Worker Injury Statistics: Little Change, Persisting Issues
- Why the Statistics May Be Underreported
- 4 Key Takeaways
To explore Amazon’s safety record on the roads, check out:
- Will Amazon’s New Delivery Driver Tech Enhance Safety or Create More Dangers?
- Jury Awards Victim $44.6M in Amazon Delivery Driver Accident Lawsuit
- When Is an Amazon Delivery Driver at Fault for a Crash?
Amazon Worker Injury Statistics: Little Change, Persisting Issues
When Bezos issued his promise to cut Amazon worker injuries by half, the company had a 6.6 overall injury rate for every 100 workers. Fast forward to 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, and little has changed. That’s because the 2023 worker injury rate at Amazon was 6.5, declining by a mere 0.1 point.
Effectively, that means that in 2023 alone:
- An astounding 38,348 worker injuries, minor to catastrophic, were reported by Amazon.
- About 94% of all Amazon worker injuries are severe in nature, requiring reduced duties and/or time away from work to recover. Remarkably, Amazon workers took a total of 6.1 million days off work to recover from job-related injuries.
- On average, an Amazon worker suffers a serious injury every 14.5 minutes.
- Amazon warehouse workers continue to endure extreme dangers on the job, with an injury rate that’s more than double that of non-Amazon warehouses. In fact, while the Amazon warehouse worker injury rate is 6.1 (per 100 workers), non-Amazon warehouses typically have injury rates around 3.0.
- Amazon warehouses are responsible for ~53% of the industry’s severe injuries, even though Amazon employs roughly a 33% of all warehouse industry workers.
- Over Prime Day, the holiday season, and similar peak periods, Amazon worker injuries often skyrocket, rising as much as 59% as the company turbocharges operations at the expense of its workers. Over Prime Day and Cyber Monday alone, there were upwards of 1,000 severe worker injuries in a single day, accounting for more than ~67% of the industry’s catastrophic injuries over that period.
The data suggests that Amazon has not done much or enough to protect its workers, reduce injury rates, or create a safer workplace.
Why the Statistics May Be Underreported
Amazon work injury statistics are undeniably alarming, not only because they’re industry-leading in truly terrible ways but also because they haven’t dropped all that much, despite high-profile announcements and lofty promises.
Worse than that, the shocking statistics very likely understate the actual “crisis” at hand. That’s because reported injuries do not include events in which:
- Workers are hurt on the job.
- They are sent to Amcare, an internal clinic run by Amazon, for “treatment.”
- They are sent back to work immediately after.
That’s probably why watchdogs have discovered that:
- At least 80% of Amazon workers who suffer serious injuries on the job are immediately put back to work with reduced duty assignments, instead of being sent home to rest and recover. That’s more than double the rate seen at non-Amazon warehouses.
- Some Amazon workers have been sent to Amcare 20+ times before outside medical attention was considered or recommended.
- Injured Amazon workers typically spend more time away from work or on light-duty assignments because they need more time to recover.
Connecting the dots, these findings could suggest that Amazon’s practice of putting injured workers back on the job so soon may not be in their best interests, potentially creating more challenges for their recovery.
4 Key Takeaways
While it’s too early to speak to 2025 statistics, the very little progress made over the past few years speaks volumes, making it very unlikely that the promise to cut Amazon worker injuries in half of 2025 will become a reality. With that, some crucial insights emerge:
- Injuries remain a persistent problem: Despite promised improvements, Amazon’s injury rate is nearly identical to what it was in 2020. While this somewhat speaks to the risks inherent to the warehouse industry, it also opens up a lot of questions about what Amazon has actually done, if anything, and why its workers continue to be hurt at such high rates.
- Worker injuries may reflect broader issues: The surge in worker injuries over peak online shopping periods seems to indicate that Amazon turns the pressure up on its workforce, pushing employees and contractors to go into “overdrive” with longer hours, higher quotas, and tougher conditions. That’s somewhat backed up by the fact that Amazon reported at least 691 serious injuries per week over peak periods in 2023.
- Warehouse workers bear the brunt: With double the injury rate of the warehouse industry as a whole, Amazon’s warehouse workers seem to face extraordinarily hazardous working conditions. Despite the company’s long-standing promises to prioritize safety, little appears to have changed.
- Amazon appears to value profits and speed over safety: Amazon’s tireless focus on cutting costs and optimizing efficiency has not come without a cost to workers’ safety. With worker injury rates not falling much since 2020, while the company has enjoyed consistent year-over-year profits, it’s difficult to make the case that Amazon prioritizes worker safety as much as it does its bottom line.
Future reports from vigilant safety advocates will shed more light on whether Amazon has moved the needle more this year — and if company leaders are really serious about making it a safer place to work. While future findings could put more pressure on Amazon to put its money where its mouth is with safety, those reports won’t do anything to help workers who have been hurt while working for Amazon.
What can help is finding out more about your legal options, a potential claim, and how to move forward.