Law Commons^™

The Structure And Enforcement Of Job Safety Regulation, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

For more than a decade, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been regulating the technology and work practices of employers. This governmental function is relatively new and is quite different from the usual governmental involvement in labor market policies. Some government efforts, such as job training and unemployment compensation, involve no direct impact on workplace operations, except that which may be induced indirectly through the incentives these policies generate. Even the minimum wage law does not directly lead to any governmental intrusion into the nature of the work relationship. In contrast, OSHA regulations specify what safety guards must …