Employers are discouraged from reporting workplace injuries and illness because it could affect their workers’ compensation rates, a new government report suggests.

Employers said they feared the effect of higher injury or illness rates on their workers’ compensation costs, according to the results of a Government Accounting Office investigation into workplace safety and health, and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“Several researchers and labor representatives said that because employers’ workers’ compensation premiums increase with higher injury and illness rates, employers may be reluctant to record injuries and illnesses,” said the 70-page report from the GAO, a nonpartisan government research organization.

The authors, who interviewed occupational health practitioners, researchers and labor representatives, found evidence that “businesses sometimes hire independent contractors to avoid the requirement to record workers’ injuries or illnesses because they are not required to record them for self-employed individuals.”

Employers surveyed also indicated that reported injuries and illnesses and the high rates that follow can hurt their ability to compete for new contracts, especially in construction, because their prices have to be higher to cover higher workers’ compensation premiums.