Which of the following is a direct cost example?

• A. WCB premiums
• B. Company morale
• C. Negative publicity
• D. Decreased productivity

Answer: (A)

Direct costs are expenses you can trace to a specific safety-related activity or incident. WCB premiums fit this because they are payments to cover workers’ compensation—an ongoing expense tied directly to employee injury risk and safety management. You can attribute this cost to the need to insure employees and the safety program’s outcomes, making it a clear, trackable financial obligation.

The other options reflect indirect costs: effects that arise more broadly from safety issues and consequences rather than from a single identifiable event, such as impacts on morale, reputational harm from negative publicity, or declines in productivity. These often spread through the organization and are not as easily allocated to one incident.