Retail reality: Mythbusting worker safety and job satisfaction

Over the last month, concerns have been raised regarding workplace safety and the level of job satisfaction among employees at large retail companies, including Amazon. These concerns are misplaced.

The health and safety of retail employees and customers is retailers’ number one priority. Retailers nationwide are investing in safer practices, sanitation, equipment, employee engagement efforts and tools to make the workplace as safe as possible. That includes worker training to ensure they understand how best to avoid injury when performing tasks, wearable technology that can provide real-time assessments to workers on their behaviors and potential risk of injury, and wellness initiatives to encourage healthier and safer choices on the job.

Unfortunately, numerous other industries are failing in their duty to ensure safe workplaces for their workers and should be the focus of enforcement efforts. The U.S. Postal Service, for example, has a disastrous health and safety record. 

Since 2017, the Postal Service has been in the top five of industries with the highest number of injuries and illnesses. In 2022, the industry saw spikes in nearly every category of workplace safety and health data that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration collects. Most concerningly, the postal service is consistently the industry with the most or second most fatalities every year across the economy.

The retail industry creates great jobs for the American workforce. It directly employs 32 million workers and supports more than one in four American jobs. Wages for front-line retail workers have grown more than 22% since 2020, faster than most other sectors.

A recently released study shows that nearly eight in 10 retail employees say they’re satisfied with their job and are “happy working in retail.” Six in 10 employees have seen advancement in their careers, with 62% of retail store managers saying they reached their current position by “moving up the ranks” in the industry.

Retail is an excellent entry point into the workforce, and 32% of all first jobs are in retail. Retail employers are uniquely able to provide employees with foundational skills and experience that both allow them to move up within the industry and allow them to transfer to other industries.

In sum, retailers are a vital element of the American economy and critical for the nation’s workforce. The criticism leveled at these employers of millions of U.S. workers is simply unfounded.