Contents
How many safety professionals are there in the US?
Health & safety officer demographics research summary. Zippia estimates health & safety officer demographics and statistics in the United States by using a database of 30 million profiles. Our health & safety officer estimates are verified against BLS, Census, and current job openings data for accuracy.
There are over 21,822 health & safety officers currently employed in the United States.20.3% of all health & safety officers are women, while 79.7% are men, The average health & safety officer age is 45 years old. The most common ethnicity of health & safety officers is White (62.0%), followed by Hispanic or Latino (14.7%), Black or African American (10.1%) and Unknown (6.2%). In 202, women earned 93% of what men earned. 7% of all health & safety officers are LGBT, Health & safety officers are 62% more likely to work at private companies in comparison to public companies.
Who are the safety professional?
What Do OSH Professionals Do? – OSH professionals advise, develop strategies, and lead workplace safety and health management. They provide advice, support and analysis to help employers establish risk controls and management processes that promote sustainable business practice.
- They work to reduce and eliminate fatalities, injuries, occupational illnesses, and property damage.
- They also provide advice on matters related to health and wellness and even security.
- Safety professionals often specialize in different areas, such as ergonomics, industrial hygiene, training, occupational psychology and occupational health, or in allied professions such as nursing, fire protection engineering or physiotherapy.
Others may be more involved in environmental management, emergency management or security. To explore OSH specialties that may interest you, read about our practice specialty member communities,
What is the workplace safety policy?
What Is a Workplace Safety Policy? – A workplace safety policy is a set of rules and procedures instructing employees on how to safely conduct themselves in work environments. The purpose of a workplace health and safety policy is to prevent illnesses, injuries, and fatalities that affect your people and your business.
You can think of the policy as a playbook to help employees understand their roles and responsibilities when it comes to staying safe on the job. While a workplace safety policy generally begins with an overarching, written document that establishes principles, objectives, and guidelines for maintaining a safe working environment, it doesn’t end there.
Your company policy on health and safety should also include specific plans of action as well as tools for carrying out those plans. Depending on your particular organization, additional tools might include things like personal protective equipment (PPE), checklists of safety procedures, an emergency notification system, and mandatory safety training.
It isn’t just construction sites, hospitals, factories, or chemical plants that are exposed to occupational dangers—workplace safety applies to every industry and business type. For example, food service workers require guidance and training to avoid burns, cuts, lacerations, and fires. Any company with an office or storefront faces a heightened risk of an active shooter event,
And all businesses are susceptible to the slips and falls that come along with inclement weather, Ensure your workplace is safe from hazards with this comprehensive checklist.
How many people have a CSP?
Since 1969, more than 30,000 individuals have achieved the CSP, OHST, CHST or STS credential.
What is the importance of safety professionals?
What Responsibilities Does a Health and Safety Professional Have? – The duties of a health and safety professional will vary dramatically depending on the industry and environment they are responsible for. In broad terms, their responsibility is to ensure the working environment is safe and as risk-free as possible for all employees.
What are OSHA recommendations?
Examples of OSHA standards include require- ments to provide fall protection, prevent trenching cave-ins, prevent exposure to some infectious diseases, ensure the safety of workers who enter confined spaces, prevent exposure to such harmful substances as asbestos and lead, put guards on machines, provide respirators or
What is the difference between safety policy and a safety procedure?
What is a procedure? – After establishing your organizational policies, procedures are the natural next step. Policies set some parameters for decision-making but leave room for flexibility. They show the “why” behind an action. Procedures, on the other hand, explain the “how.” They provide step-by-step instructions for specific routine tasks.
Who is responsible for each task What steps need to be taken Who the responsible party reports to
Let’s look at an example, requesting vacation time, to better understand the difference between policy and procedure. The vacation policy determines how much PTO an employee is eligible to take. The procedure lists the steps involved to get PTO approval, or what factors determine who gets priority days off.
Clear, concise, and simple language Addresses how to implement policies Takes user insight into account Providing options when feasible, not unnecessarily restrictive
What is a safety audit?
A safety audit is a process that evaluates the health and safety of a work setting. During an audit, a group gathers data about a location’s operations. They identify hazards and illustrate how to make the area safer for employees.
What is safety regulation?
(ˈseɪftɪ ˌrɛɡjʊˈleɪʃənz ) plural noun. regulations or rules that are put in place to ensure a product, event, etc, is safe and not dangerous.
How many people have a CSM?
What being A-CSM or CSP-SM tells others about you – Becoming a Certified ScrumMaster is a great way to start your Agile journey. But despite its prevalence and market desirability, being a CSM doesn’t actually tell people much about what you know about Scrum or your abilities as a ScrumMaster.
- Anyone who’s ever been in the position of trying to hire experienced ScrumMasters or Agile coaches will tell you there are lot of people out there who are CSMs but who’ve never actually done Scrum in any capacity (let alone the critical role of ScrumMaster).
- In becoming an Advanced-Certified ScrumMaster, you’re demonstrating that you haven’t just been to a class and passed a test: you’ve done this before, and you’ve done it enough to understand some of the patterns that help – and hurt – Scrum teams.
And in achieving the Certified Scrum Professional – ScrumMaster, you’re not rounding out your ScrumMaster and Agile Coaching education, you’re demonstrating a degree of experience and content mastery that very few people will reach. If you’re looking to distinguish yourself in a large stack of resumes, here are some numbers that might help you out: worldwide, there are over 900,000 active CSMs, but around 14,000 A-CSMS.
- And there are less than 9,000 CSP-SMs! That is a significantly small pool of people to compete with for plum roles on teams doing exciting work.
- And in becoming a CSP-SM, you also open the door toward pursuing Scrum training or coaching as you vocation by someday joining the Scrum Alliance Guide Community as a Certified Scrum Trainer, Certified Enterprise Coach, or Certified Team Coach.
Our first CSP-SM course will be taught on Wednesday, September 8. Learn more about the requirements and register now,
What is the pass rate for CSP?
CSP Certification Pass/Fail Statistics
Admin Date | All Examinees | % Passing – All |
---|---|---|
Jul – Dec 2022 | 122 | 82% |
Jan – Jun 2022 | 125 | 85% |
Oct 2021* | 66 | 82% |
Jan – Jun 2021 | 138 | 54% |
What is the safest job in the world?
Thursday 11 August 2016 9:43 am City A.M. has no doubt its readers are a thrill-seeking, adventurous bunch. At work, it seems they’re rather more cautious – because it turns out financial sector roles are among the least dangerous jobs out there. According to research by US jobs site CareerCast.com, accountant/auditor is the world’s safest job – although with an average salary of $67,190 (£51,878), it’s far from the most lucrative “safe” job.
That accolade belongs to mathematician, the sixth-safest job and, with a salary of $111,100 (appropriately binary-looking), by far the most lucrative. Other potentially financial sector roles included among the safest were actuary, with a salary of $97,070; computer systems analyst, at $85,800, and statistician, at $80,110.
Read more: These are the UK’s 10 best-paid jobs for graduates
World’s most dangerous jobs | World’s safest jobs | ||
1. | Construction labourer | 1. | Accountant/auditor |
2. | Correction officer | 2. | Actuary |
3. | Paramedic | 3. | Computer systems analyst |
4. | Farmer | 4. | Dietician |
5. | Firefighter | 5. | Interpreter/Translator |
6. | Nursing assistant | 6. | Mathematician |
7. | Police officer | 7. | Medical records technician |
8. | Taxi driver | 8. | Paralegal assistant |
9. | Truck driver | 9. | Statistician |
10. | Veterinarian | 10. | Web developer |
Thinking of changing to something a little edgier? Be prepared to take a pay cut. The most dangerous job was construction labourer, which has an average salary of $30,890. Correction officer – or prison officer in the UK – was a little more lucrative, with an average salary of $40,580.
But by far the most lucrative role on the danger list was veterinarian, with a salary of $88,490. That was followed by farmers, who can expect to make $64,170. Interestingly, actuaries not only have incredibly safe jobs – but last year a ranking of 200 professions also suggested they have the best jobs, based on how well they pay, opportunities for advancement and the environment they work in.
Mathematicians and computer systems analysts also appeared in the top 10 – while newspaper reporter came at the bottom of the list. So if in doubt, get into the finance sector.
What is the highest salary for a safety manager?
Highest salary that a Safety Manager can earn is ₹22.0 Lakhs per year (₹1.8L per month). How does Safety Manager Salary in India change with experience? An Entry Level Safety Manager with less than three years of experience earns an average salary of ₹5.7 Lakhs per year.
How many professionals are there in the US?
2021 FACT SHEET – Download the PDF Version Highlights
Professionals were 59.8 percent of the total workforce in 2020, with 88.4 million people working across a wide variety of occupations. 6.31 million union members worked in professional occupations in 2020, an all-time high. Women, Black, and Latinx professionals continued to be underrepresented in the highest paying professional occupational groups, including architecture and engineering and computer and math.
Quantifying the Professional and Technical Workforce While the professional and technical workforce can be hard to define, available data demonstrates that professionals play a greater part in our economy than ever before. Over the past few decades, the increase in the number of professionals has created interest in analysis of professionals and the unique issues they face in the workplace.
- While professional jobs are diverse, professionals often have a strong occupational identity, advanced education and training, and above average compensation. The U.S.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines the professional workforce as including all workers in the “management, professional, and related occupations” group.
The BLS goes on to divide this broad category into 10 distinct occupation groups. These groups, and the number of people working in them in 2020 are:
Management occupations (18,564,000); Business and financial operations occupations (8,578,000); Computer and mathematical occupations (5,603,000); Architecture and engineering occupations (3,169,000); Life, physical, and social science occupations (1,627,000); Community and social service occupations (2,717,000); Legal occupations (1,882,000); Education, training, and library occupations (8,902,000); Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations (3,042,000); and Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations (9,559,000).
In total, there were 63,644,000 professionals working in these occupations in 2020, representing 43 percent of the total U.S. workforce. However, a number of professionals are employed in occupations that are not included in the BLS classification of “management, professional, and related occupations,” due to the way the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system was constructed.
For example, the “sales and office occupations” group includes many professionals who are well-educated and may be well-compensated, including securities, commodities and financial services sales agents, and accounting clerks. The same is true in nearly every other occupational group, including firefighters and fire inspectors in the protective service occupations group and aircraft pilots and flight engineers in the transportation occupations group.
Therefore, the second way to identify who is a professional is through educational attainment. This method for identifying professionals also has flaws, since it would also count those who are underemployed in occupations that would not be considered to be part of the professional or technical workforce.
However, given the fluidity of professional identity, the increasing use of technological tools in various occupations, and absent other methods to count ALL professionals, this fact sheet counts employees in all occupation groups as professionals if they have at least an associate’s degree in an academic program.
Thus, professional employment outside of the professional occupation groups in 2020 totaled 24,708,000, including:
Healthcare support occupations (1,397,000); Protective service occupations (1,298,000); Food preparation and serving related occupations (1,376,000); Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (819,000); Personal care and service occupations (1,201,000); Sales and related occupations (6,417,000); Office and administrative support occupations (6,382,000); Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (131,000); Construction and extraction occupations (1,127,000); Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (892,000); Production occupations (1,526,000); and Transportation and material moving occupations (2,141,000).
Using these two methods, we can count over 88 million professionals working in the U.S. in 2020, making up 59.8 percent of the total workforce. The third and final definition of a professional includes all working people who self-identify as professionals.
- However, as this definition is not quantifiable, it will not be included in this factsheet.
- Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Makeup As seen in the chart below, except for Asian-American and Pacific Islanders, racial and ethnic minorities were underrepresented in the professional and technical workforce in 2020.
Professional Women While women made up 46.8 percent of the total workforce, they represented 50.9 percent of all professionals in 2020. However, women are not distributed equally across all professional occupations. They are overrepresented by more than 10 percent in six out of 22 occupational groups and are underrepresented by more than 10 percent in nine out of 22 occupational groups.
Occupation Group | 2020 Percentage Women | 2010 Percentage Women |
Management | 40.4% | 39.4% |
Business and Financial Operations | 53.9% | 55.1% |
Computer and Mathematical Science | 25.2% | 28.2% |
Architecture and Engineering | 16.5% | 15.6% |
Life, Physical, and Social Science | 49.4% | 45.4% |
Community and Social Service | 68.9% | 63.1% |
Legal | 51.9% | 51.6% |
Education, Training, and Library | 73.5% | 74.3% |
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 51.3% | 48.5% |
Healthcare Practitioner and Technical | 74.3% | 75.0% |
Healthcare Support | 81.6% | 83.5% |
Protective Service | 25.1% | 21.1% |
Food Preparation and Serving Related | 53.4% | 56.1% |
Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 42.0% | 33.4% |
Personal Care and Service | 75.0% | 73.9% |
Sales and Related | 44.1% | 42.6% |
Office and Administrative Support | 72.7% | 71.9% |
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry | 34.9% | 26.9% |
Construction and Extraction | 7.6% | 5.4% |
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair | 5.6% | 6.5% |
Production Occupations | 33.0% | 29.2% |
Transportation and Material Moving | 23.2% | 17.1% |
Black and African American Professionals In 2020, there were approximately 9.25 million Black professionals employed in the U.S. This is an increase from 7.52 million in 2010 and represents a positive 1.5 percent change in density (from 9.0 percent density in 2003 to 10.5 percent in 2020).
Occupation Group | 2020 Percentage Black | 2010 Percentage Black |
Management | 8% | 7.2% |
Business and Financial Operations | 10.5% | 9.3% |
Computer and Mathematical Science | 9.1% | 7.5% |
Architecture and Engineering | 6% | 4.8% |
Life, Physical, and Social Science | 6.5% | 5.8% |
Community and Social Service | 19.9% | 18.2% |
Legal | 8.6% | 6.6% |
Education, Training, and Library | 10% | 9.6% |
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 8.5% | 6.8% |
Healthcare Practitioner and Technical | 12.1% | 9.9% |
Healthcare Support | 20.8% | 15.7% |
Protective Service | 17.4% | 14.4% |
Food Preparation and Serving Related | 10.0% | 7.0% |
Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 15.1% | 9.1% |
Personal Care and Service | 8.7% | 10.9% |
Sales and Related | 8.2% | 6.4% |
Office and Administrative Support | 13.1% | 12.0% |
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry | 3.7% | 3.2% |
Construction and Extraction | 9.7% | 6.0% |
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair | 13.0% | 8.3% |
Production Occupations | 12.1% | 10.1% |
Transportation and Material Moving | 18.4% | 13.9% |
Latinx Professionals In 2020, there were over 10 million Latinx professionals in the workforce. This is up from 6.95 million Latinx professionals in 2010, a 46 percent increase. Overall, Latinx professionals have gone from 8.3 percent density in professional occupations in 2010 to 11.5 percent in 2020.
Occupation Group | 2020 Percentage Latinx, of any race | 2010 Percentage Latinx, of any race |
Management | 10.7% | 8.2% |
Business and Financial Operations | 11.2% | 7.8% |
Computer and Mathematical Science | 8.4% | 5.9% |
Architecture and Engineering | 10.6% | 7.0% |
Life, Physical, and Social Science | 8.5% | 6.3% |
Community and Social Service | 13.5% | 9.6% |
Legal | 8.3% | 7.4% |
Education, Training, and Library | 10.9% | 8.6% |
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 11.2% | 9.2% |
Healthcare Practitioner and Technical | 9.4% | 6.7% |
Healthcare Support | 15.1% | 11.0% |
Protective Service | 12.2% | 9.6% |
Food Preparation and Serving Related | 20.8% | 12.5% |
Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 23.5% | 18.2% |
Personal Care and Service | 12.0% | 9.6% |
Sales and Related | 11.4% | 7.3% |
Office and Administrative Support | 12.8% | 8.9% |
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry | 5.5% | 12.4% |
Construction and Extraction | 20.1% | 12.4% |
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair | 17.7% | 10.2% |
Production Occupations | 16.9% | 9.7% |
Transportation and Material Moving | 17.0% | 9.9% |
Asian-American and Pacific Islander Professionals In 2020, there were 7.5 million professionals who identified as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), comprising 8.5 percent of the total professional workforce. While Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up only 6.8 percent of the total U.S.
Occupation Group | 2020 Percentage Asian-American or Pacific Islander | 2010 Percentage Asian-American or Pacific Islander |
Management | 5.8% | 5.1% |
Business and Financial Operations | 8.7% | 7.2% |
Computer and Mathematical Science | 23% | 16.7% |
Architecture and Engineering | 13.6% | 11.1% |
Life, Physical, and Social Science | 14.9% | 13.2% |
Community and Social Service | 3.4% | 3.1% |
Legal | 5.6% | 3.9% |
Education, Training, and Library | 4.9% | 4.4% |
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media | 5.9% | 5.1% |
Healthcare Practitioner and Technical | 9.4% | 8.6% |
Healthcare Support | 12.4% | 9.2% |
Protective Service | 3.6% | 2.9% |
Food Preparation and Serving Related | 13.1% | 8.4% |
Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance | 6.5% | 5.2% |
Personal Care and Service | 11.1% | 8.1% |
Sales and Related | 8.4% | 7.0% |
Office and Administrative Support | 8.0% | 7.2% |
Farming, Fishing, and Forestry | 1.0% | 4.0% |
Construction and Extraction | 4.0% | 2.7% |
Installation, Maintenance, and Repair | 5.9% | 5.1% |
Production Occupations | 9.0% | 9.0% |
Transportation and Material Moving | 7.5% | 5.2% |
Educational Attainment In 2020, out of the 88.4 million working professionals, 60.5 million (65.6 percent) had a bachelor’s degree or higher. Life, physical, and social science occupations had the highest concentration of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, 85.4 percent, followed by legal occupations at 82.6 percent.
- Among BLS-designated professional occupations, management occupations had the lowest concentration of professionals with at least a bachelor’s degree at 57.5 percent.
- Certain occupational groups also have high concentrations of professionals with master’s, professional, and doctorate degrees, due to the education requirements of jobs within those categories or the advancement opportunities available to professionals with advanced degrees.
For example, in 43 states, lawyers must earn a law degree from an accredited law school in order to practice, and earning a Juris Doctor is the most straightforward path to becoming an attorney, even in states where it is not required in order to pass the bar.
Master’s degrees or equivalent coursework are required in four states for teachers’ professional licensure, four more states encourage degrees as a pathway to licensure, 14 additional states require master’s degrees for optional advanced professional licenses, and the vast majority of school districts offer significant pay incentives to teachers who earn master’s degrees.
Other occupations with similar professional or regulatory requirements or other incentives include doctors and other medical professionals, post-secondary educators, social workers, scientists, and many others. Older Professionals In 2020, there were approximately 96.8 million Americans aged 55 or older. This includes members of the so-called “Silent Generation” (born before 1945), “Baby Boomers” (born between 1946-1964) and the oldest members of “Generation X” (born between 1965-1979).
- Among this age group, 35.3 million were employed in 2020 (23.9 percent of the workforce), including approximately 24 million professionals.
- Americans 55 and older make up a larger portion of the professional workforce (25.5 percent) than the workforce as a whole.
- They have particularly high rates of representation in management occupations, legal occupations, building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations, and farming, fishing and forestry occupations.
They are severely underrepresented in computer and math occupations, life, physical and social service occupations, and food preparation and serving occupations. Older Americans are also underrepresented in protective service occupations, though this is likely a result of mandatory retirement ages for law enforcement officers and firefighters in many states and the robust pension plans that are often negotiated by their unions.
Baby Boomers have been waiting longer than previous generations to leave the labor force. A 2018 Gallup survey showed that working Americans expect, on average, to retire at 66, two years later than they reported 15 years ago. And Baby Boomers, who may have a more realistic picture of their retirement savings needs, expect to work even longer than the rest of the population does, reported an average expectation to stop working at age 67.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic may have pushed some to retire earlier than previously planned. The number of Baby Boomers who retired in 2020 was more than double the number who retired in 2019. Baby Boomers are working longer than previous generations due to a multitude of factors, including longer life expectancies, changing eligibility requirements for Social Security benefits, and rising healthcare and long-term care costs, which increases the need for substantial retirement savings.
And with the shift from employer-sponsored defined-benefit pension plans to defined-contribution 401(k)-type plans, Baby Boomers are the first generation who have had to save substantially for their own retirements. However, most Boomers have inadequate retirement savings, with a median household retirement account balance of $202,000.
Young Professionals In 2020, there were 28 million professionals between the ages of 18 and 34. These young professionals represent 30 percent of the professional workforce as a whole and 38 percent of the overall 18-34 workforce. Young professionals are overrepresented in computer and math occupations; life, physical and social science occupations; arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations; healthcare support occupations; food preparation and serving occupations; and personal care and service occupations.
- They are underrepresented in management occupations; legal occupations; and building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations.
- The high concentration of 18-34 year olds with associate’s and bachelor’s degrees outside of the BLS-designated professional occupation groups is a sign of a labor market problem that has persisted for at least the last 30 years.
This problem of underemployment can be hard to measure, though one calculation found that 33.5 percent of college graduates were underemployed as of March 2021, and that recent graduates were even more likely to experience underemployment (40.3 percent).
- For many young professionals, entry into the professional workforce requires a post-secondary degree, leading increasing percentages of young people to seek out higher education.
- In the 2018-2019 academic year, institutions of higher education conferred 1.03 million associate’s degrees, 2.01 million bachelor’s degrees, 833,000 master’s degrees, and 187,000 doctorates’.
In 2010, 42.3 percent of 25-34 year olds had an associate’s, bachelor’s, or higher degree, but by 2020 this number had risen to 51.8 percent. While more education can translate into higher lifetime earnings, it also results in higher levels of student loan debt, especially when considering the rapidly rising cost of education.
- In the second quarter of 2021, total outstanding student loan balances rose to $1.732 trillion, 92 percent of which was federal student debt.
- While it is often associated with young graduates, student loan debt is not limited to the young.
- In the second quarter of 2021, 8.7 million Americans 50 and older owed a combined $366.4 billion in federal student loans, representing 23 percent of all outstanding federal student debt.
Union Density Union density varies widely depending on the particular occupation group. In 2020, there were 14.25 million union members in the United States, representing 10.8 percent of the workforce. There were 6.31 million union members working in BLS-designated professional occupations (11.3 percent density), and 8.48 million total union professionals across all occupations (11.2 percent density).
Occupational Group | Professionals’ Union Density |
Management occupations | 4.3% |
Business and financial operations occupations | 4.5% |
Computer and mathematical science occupations | 3.8% |
Architecture and engineering occupations | 6.2% |
Life, physical, and social science occupations | 9.6% |
Community and social service occupations | 15.6% |
Legal occupations | 6.9% |
Education, training, and library occupations | 35.9% |
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations | 6.2% |
Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations | 11.9% |
Healthcare support occupations | 8.7% |
Protective service occupations | 46.0% |
Food preparation and serving related occupations | 4.3% |
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations | 12.6% |
Personal care and service occupations | 5.5% |
Sales and related occupations | 2.7% |
Office and administrative support occupations | 8.7% |
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations | 3.5% |
Construction and extraction occupations | 20.5% |
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations | 16.9% |
Production occupations | 11.9% |
Transportation and material moving occupations | 18.8% |
Wages, Hours, and Benefits As of the second quarter of 2021, the median weekly salary for full-time workers in management, professional, and related occupations was $1,366, while the median for all full-time employees was $990. Professionals working in non-professional occupation groups earned significantly less, averaging $1,071 per week in March 2021.
- However, professionals’ weekly earnings vary greatly among education levels and occupational classifications.
- For example, legal professionals have the highest median weekly earnings among those working in professional occupations at $1,733.67 while community and social service professionals have the lowest median weekly earnings at $1,181.2.
Professionals working in farming, fishing and forestry occupations have the lowest median weekly earnings of any occupational group at $567.3 Educational attainment pays off for professionals in all occupations. While professionals with an associate’s degree earn a median weekly income of $932.21, those with a bachelor’s degree earn $1,359.62, those with a master’s degree earn $1,592.49, professional degree holders earn $1,945.27, and doctorate degree holders earn $1,947.19.
- Over 80 percent of the workforce working in professional occupations were employed full-time in 2020.
- Pay Disparities While progress has been made on some fronts, pay disparities continue to persist for women and people of color, especially in professional occupations.
- While the overall pay gap between men and women was 82 percent in 2020, women only made 74 percent of what men made in professional occupations in the same year.
The professional occupational group with the largest wage gap was the legal occupations group, where women only made 55 percent of what men made. Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations had the smallest pay gap, at 90 percent. Pay disparities for African-American professionals (80.9 percent) were worse than the disparities faced by African-Americans in all non-professional occupation groups other than Protective service and sales and related occupations.
- Disparities for Latino professionals (83.2 percent) were worse than those faced by Latino workers in all non-professional occupations other than sales and related, construction and extraction, and production occupations.
- Health Insurance and Retirement Benefits In March 2020, 79.4 percent of professionals were offered health insurance through their employer, with union members having a significantly higher rate of coverage than nonmembers (90 percent versus 78.4 percent).
Additionally, professional union members are much more likely to be covered by an employer or union sponsored retirement plan. In March 2020, 72.8 percent of union professionals were eligible for an employer or union sponsored retirement plan while only 46.6 percent of non-union professionals were even eligible for any kind of workplace retirement plan.
- Impacts of COVID-19 As the COVID-19 virus persists across the world, professionals are still feeling the pandemic’s economic impacts.
- While the U.S.
- Economy officially is no longer in the pandemic-induced recession, too many professionals remain out of work.
- In particular, professionals working in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry have experienced widespread unemployment as public health measures effectively shut down live events for over a year and TV and film productions were paused for many months.
Overall employment in these industries was down 344,000 between March 2020 and June 2021. Healthcare professionals including nurses, physicians, medical first responders, clinicians and support technicians have been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.
- Though there is no official accounting, an investigation by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News identified 3,607 healthcare professionals who lost their lives to the virus in the first 12 months of the pandemic.
- Many healthcare professionals report trauma, burnout, anxiety and fear as a result of the pandemic and the increasing workload placed on them, which is often compounded by insufficient safety standards.
Educators have also experienced widespread stress as a result of the pandemic and shifting public health guidance. All public schools closed in March 2020 as the pandemic took hold in the United States, and the 2020-2021 school year saw many schools experiment with remote-only and hybrid models, sometimes after abortive attempts to resume in-person instruction.
- The rapidly changing nature of instruction and the risk of COVID-19 exposure has left a majority of educators with high levels of stress, fatigue, and anxiety at work.
- For many other professionals, the pandemic meant transitioning to remote work as offices closed.
- In May 2020, 57.4 percent of those working in professional occupations reported working at home due to the coronavirus pandemic.
By August 2021, driven by the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccines and employers’ desire to return to normal operations, this rate had dropped to 24.6 percent. Though the long-term future of expanded work from home arrangements remains uncertain, opinion polls of both employers and employees indicate that professionals have a desire for continued flexibility in both work hours and work location.
While the delta variant has delayed many plans for office reopenings, professionals who are union members will have more power than their non-union peers to shape the future of their telework options. September 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics. “11b. Employed persons by detailed occupation and age.” Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.2020.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11b.htm U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata. January – December 2020. https://data.census.gov/mdat/. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid, Ibid.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Table 11. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata.U.S.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Table 11.
- Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm Ibid. Ibid.U.S.
- Census Bureau.
- Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata.
- January – December 2020.
- Https://data.census.gov/mdat/.
- Adwar, Corey.
“How to become a lawyer without a law degree.” Slate, August 2 2014. Retrieved from https://slate.com/business/2014/08/states-that-allow-bar-exams-without-law-degrees-require-apprenticeships-instead-of-law-school.html 2015 State Teacher Policy Yearbook.
- National Council on Teacher Quality.
- January 2016.
- Retrieved from https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/2015_State_Teacher_Policy_Yearbook_National_Summary_NCTQ_Report.U.S.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Table 3.3.
- Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population by age, sex, and race.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm.U.S.
Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata. January – December 2020. https://data.census.gov/mdat/. State retirement plans for public safety workers. National Conference of State Legislatures. August 24, 2012. http://www.ncsl.org/research/fiscal-policy/state-retirement-plans-public-safety-tables.aspx Newport, Frank.
Snapshot: Average American Predicts Retirement Age of 66.” Gallup. May 10, 2018. https://news.gallup.com/poll/234302/snapshot-americans-project-average-retirement-age.aspx Fry, Richard. “The pace of Boomer retirements has accelerated in the past year.” November 9, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/09/the-pace-of-boomer-retirements-has-accelerated-in-the-past-year/ Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
“Living in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Health, Finances, and Retirement Prospects of Four Generations” August 2021. https://transamericacenter.org/docs/default-source/retirement-survey-of-workers/tcrs2021_sr_four-generations-living-in-a-pandemic.pdf U.S.
Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata. January – December 2020. https://data.census.gov/mdat/. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates.” May 21, 2021. https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market/college-labor-market_underemployment_rates.html National Center for Education Statistics.
“Table 318.10. Degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: Selected years, 1869-70 through 2029-30.” July 2020. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_318.10.asp?current=yes “National Center for Education Statistics.
Number of persons age 18 and over, by highest level of educational attainment, sex, race/ethnicity, and age: 2020.” December 2020. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_104.30.asp Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. “Consumer Credit – G.19.” September 8, 2021. https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current/default.htm U.S.
Department of Education. “Federal Student Loan Portfolio.” https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/portfolio. Ibid.U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata. January – December 2020. https://data.census.gov/mdat/. Ibid.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers.” 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.toc.htm U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey, Basic Monthly Microdata. March 2021. https://data.census.gov/mdat/. Ibid, Ibid.U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “23. Persons at work by occupation, sex, and usual full- or part-time status.” January 22, 2021.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat23.htm U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table 39: Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by detailed occupation and sex. January 22, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Labor force characteristics by race and ethnicity, 2019.
- December 2020.
- Https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2019/home.htm U.S.
- Census Bureau.
- Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
- March 2020. Ibid.U.S.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Job Openings and Labor Turnover.
- Https://www.bls.gov/bls/news-release/jolts.htm “Lost on the frontline.” The Guardian and Kaiser Health News.
April 8, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/dec/22/why-were-counting-every-us-healthcare-worker-who-dies-from-coronavirus American Federation of Teachers. “AFT’s health professionals push OSHA for a COVID standard.” May 4, 2021.
- Https://www.aft.org/news/afts-health-professionals-push-osha-covid-standard American Medical Association.
- Half of health workers report burnout amid COVID-19.” July 20, 2021.
- Https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/half-health-workers-report-burnout-amid-covid-19 Ferren, Megan.
- Remote Learning and School Reopenings: What Worked and What Didn’t.” Center for American Progress.
July 6, 2021. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2021/07/06/501221/remote-learning-school-reopenings-worked-didnt/ Mission Square Research Institute. “K-12 Employee Job Satisfaction Plummets as Stress and Worries Increase Regarding COVID-19 Safety and Personal Finances.” February 25, 2021.
- Https://www.slge.org/news-posts/k-12-employee-job-satisfaction-plummets-as-stress-and-worries-increase-regarding-covid-19-safety-and-personal-finances U.S.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Table 2.
- Employed persons who teleworked or worked at home for pay at any time in the last 4 weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic by usual full- or part-time status, occupation, industry, and class of worker.” https://www.bls.gov/cps/effects-of-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.htm#data PwC.
“It’s time to reimagine where and how work will get done: PwC’s US Remote Work Survey.” January 12, 2021. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/covid-19/us-remote-work-survey.html
How many OSHA inspectors are there in the US?
Enforcement – OSHA is responsible for enforcing its standards on regulated entities. Compliance Safety and Health Officers carry out inspections and assess fines for regulatory violations. Inspections are planned for worksites in particularly hazardous industries.
- Inspections can also be triggered by a workplace fatality, multiple hospitalizations, worker complaints, or referrals.
- OSHA is a small agency, given the size of its mission: with its state partners, OSHA has approximately 2,400 inspectors covering more than 8 million workplaces where 130 million workers are employed.
In Fiscal Year 2012 (ending Sept.30), OSHA and its state partners conducted more than 83,000 inspections of workplaces across the United States — just a fraction of the nation’s worksites. According to a report by AFL–CIO, it would take OSHA 129 years to inspect all workplaces under its jurisdiction.
Enforcement plays an important part in OSHA’s efforts to reduce workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Inspections are initiated without advance notice, conducted using on-site or telephone and facsimile investigations, performed by trained compliance officers and scheduled based on the following priorities : imminent danger; catastrophes – fatalities or hospitalizations; worker complaints and referrals; targeted inspections – particular hazards, high injury rates; and follow-up inspections.
Current workers or their representatives may file a complaint and ask OSHA to inspect their workplace if they believe that there is a serious hazard or that their employer is not following OSHA standards. Workers and their representatives have the right to ask for an inspection without OSHA telling their employer who filed the complaint.
It is a violation of the OSH Act for an employer to fire, demote, transfer or in any way discriminate against a worker for filing a complaint or using other OSHA rights. When an inspector finds violations of OSHA standards or serious hazards, OSHA may issue citations and fines. A citation includes methods an employer may use to fix a problem and the date by which the corrective actions must be completed.
OSHA’s fines are very low compared with other government agencies. They were raised for the first time since 1990 on August 2, 2016, to comply with the 2015 Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act passed by Congress to advance the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect.
- The new law directs agencies to adjust their penalties for inflation each year.
- The maximum OSHA fine for a serious violation is $13,653 (which can be assessed daily after a failure to “abate” the violation) and the maximum fine for a repeat or willful violation is $136,532.
- In determining the amount of the proposed penalty, OSHA must take into account the gravity of the alleged violation and the employer’s size of business, good faith, and history of previous violations,
Employers have the right to contest any part of the citation, including whether a violation actually exists. Workers only have the right to challenge the deadline by which a problem must be resolved. Appeals of citations are heard by the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC).
- In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused about 1,300 workers and their families to contract the virus, with four deaths, at the Smithfield Foods packing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
- The governor, Kristi Noem, resisted initiating and enforcing measures to protect workers and the community.
- The plant was fined $13,494 – the maximum allowed at the time – by OSHA for what was considered a single violation.
OSHA carries out its enforcement activities through its 10 regional offices and 90 area offices. OSHA’s regional offices are located in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle,
How many workers in the USA is OSHA responsible for?
Federal OSHA coverage – Federal OSHA is a small agency; with our state partners we have approximately 1,850 inspectors responsible for the health and safety of 130 million workers, employed at more than 8 million worksites around the nation — which translates to about one compliance officer for every 70,000 workers. Federal OSHA has 10 regional offices and 85 local area offices.
How many knowledge workers are there in the US?
Total US Market Size –
A survey by G a r t n e r found that there are just over 100 million knowledge workers in the US, as well as over 1 billion knowledge workers worldwide. This survey also found that by the end of 2021, 51% of these knowledge workers will be working remotely.