Indirect Costs (Society/Employers)

Indirect costs associated with lost wages for those aged 18 to 64 years are not calculated for persons with a musculoskeletal injury. However, musculoskeletal injuries are a primary cause of lost work days by persons in the labor force. In 2010, musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) accounted for nearly one-third (30.5%) of the 933,200 injuries involving days away from work. In addition, MSD injuries consistently across the years result in more median days away from work than all workplace injuries. In 2011, MSDs had a median of 11 days away from work compared to a median of 8 days for all injuries, which includes the MSDs in this median. (Reference Table 6B.1.1 PDF [1] CSV [2] and Table 6B.2.1 PDF [3] CSV [4])