82 Business View - August 2015
will actually be approximately 10 times the OSHA esti-
mate—costing nearly $5 billion a year.
The cost and impact analysis from OSHA reflects a
fundamental misunderstanding of the construction in-
dustry. The OSHA analysis included major errors and
omissions that account for the large discrepancies
with the CISC report. The CISC report estimates that
about 80% of the cost ($3.9 billion/year) will be di-
rect compliance expenditures by the industry such as
additional equipment, labor and record-keeping costs.
The remaining 20% of the cost ($1.05 billion/year) will
come in the form of increased prices that the industry
will have to pay for construction materials and building
products such as concrete block, glass, roofing shin-
gles and more. OSHA failed to take into account these
additional costs to the construction industry that will
result from the proposed standard, which will then be
passed down to customers in the form of higher prices.
Not only will the proposed rule be more costly than
originally estimated, but it would translate into signifi-
cant job losses for the construction industry and the
broader economy. The CISC estimates that the pro-
CONSTRUCTION
