Small Business Glossary and Definitions

Incident Rate is a factor in measuring health and safety in the workplace. The Office of Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires the reporting of incident rates in order to assess compliance with health and safety regulations in the workplace. The formula for determining the incident rate developed by OSHA provides a standardized rate for comparison across industries.

Organizations benefit from monitoring their incident rate by comparing themselves to their industry as a whole, identifying health and safety issues that require improvement, and monitor changes in the rate over time.