Changes in income after occupational injury according to return-to-work and job retention

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Introduction: In Korea, 102,305 workers were involved in industrial accidents in 2018, and the total insurance payment for industrial accident compensation in 2017 was approximately KRW 4 trillion. Industrial accidents cause significant loss, both directly and indirectly, to the country, business owners, and workers alike. Many countries have adopted workers’ compensation insurance to protect those involved in industrial accidents, with the ultimate goal being workers’ return to society. In returning to society, the important issue is whether the worker can return to their economic status pre-accident. Therefore, this study aims to compare workers’ income before and after an occupational injury, with regard to return-to-work and job retention, and, if differences arise, to explore the alternatives.

Methods: This study used data from the first to fifth Panel Study of Workers’ Compensation Insurance. The respondents’ annual income before and after occupational injury considering return-to-work and job retention were compared using a repeated measures ANOVA. To identify changes in income after occupational injury considering general characteristics, this study used a linear mixed-effects model. To identify the effect on income after occupational injury considering return-to-work and job retention, this study used the generalized estimating equation.

Results: There were no differences in annual incomes before and after occupational injury and the five-year average income after occupational injury between workers who were in the returned to original work group but could not retain the job and workers who were reemployed and retained the job (p=0.5219, p=0.3662, respectively). In regard to workers’ return-to-work, the odds ratio that income after an occupational injury would be higher than that before an occupational injury was 3.17 (2.41–4.17) for those who returned to original work and 2.32 (1.81–2.97) for those reemployed as compared to who did not return-to-work. In terms of job retention, the odds ratio that income after an occupational injury would be higher than that before an occupational injury was 1.27 (1.07–1.15) for those who retained their job as compared to those who did not. The odds ratios were 2.91 (2.26–3.75) for those who were reemployed and retained jobs and 2.96 (2.15–4.08) for those who returned to original work and did not retain jobs as compared to those who did not return-to-work and did not retain jobs.

Conclusion: The income of workers involved in industrial accidents generally decreased, compared with their income before the occupational injury. However, workers who returned to their original workplace but did not retain jobs had similar incomes to workers who were reemployed and retained their jobs. This signifies that although returning to the original workplace is very important to maintain the economic level of workers involved in industrial accidents, it is also important to retain jobs, even if the individual cannot return to their original workplace.