As reported by WedMD¹ in April 2022, 38,000 Amazon workers were injured at work in 2021, a 20% increase from the previous year.

Amazon warehouse injuries makeup 49% of all US warehouse injuries for the year of the report. The serious injury rate from Amazon warehouses was 6.8 for every 100 workers compared to the average of 3.3 from other companies.

The Strategic Organizing Center came to this conclusion when it studied the injury data Amazon submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

One Amazon spokesperson told Gizmodo that the rising injury rate was due to the company training a record number of new employees.

“Like other companies in the industry, we saw an increase in recordable injuries during this time from 2020 to 2021 as we trained so many new people. However, when you compare 2021 to 2019, our recordable injury rate declined more than 13% year over year,” the spokesperson said.

Around 98% of all Amazon employee injuries were so severe that employees either left work or were unable to normally function.

This report also found that Amazon warehouse workers needed on average 19 more days to recover from their injuries than workers from other warehouse injuries.

The SOC says that Amazon’s warehouse production speeds are the reason for their high injury rates.

“Amazon’s obsession with speed has played a role in driving its injury rates higher. Amazon uses extensive productivity and monitoring systems to increase pressure on workers to move at dangerous speeds,” the report said.

If you feel you’re unable to voice your concerns about your working conditions at Amazon, contact us for further assistance at: CJ@AmazonSellersLawyer.com.

Our Amazon Employment Law Firm can assist you in three ways: 

(1) Do It Yourself: Knowledge & Forms; 

(2) Done With You: Knowledge, Forms and Attorney Help Editing the Documents; and

(3) Done For You: We meet with you and draft the documents for you. We may also, in some cases, offer to fully represent the client.