Insights from The 2025 State of Heat Safety in Construction Report: What 250 Construction Leaders Revealed About Delays, Timelines, and Worker Turnover in Extreme Heat
Heat Is Redefining Construction Safety
Extreme heat is rewriting the rules of construction safety. On construction sites where speed, precision, and uptime are everything, unmanaged heat drives blown deadlines, worker turnover, and serious safety incidents.
Despite accounting for just 6% of the workforce, construction is responsible for 36% of all heat-related work deaths.
Crews are getting sick. Projects are falling behind. And common heat management tools—like heat index apps and manual rest charts—aren’t cutting it.
Perry Weather’s 2025 Heat Safety in Construction Report surveyed 250 construction leaders to learn how teams are responding to rising temperatures and heat-related work stoppages.
If you’re not up to speed on the Current OSHA guidelines, you can view the rules in this video below.
The findings are clear: most firms understand the risk, but many still lack a reliable way to manage it. The missing link? Structured work/rest scheduling.
This blog unpacks the key takeaways from the report and shows how construction leaders are using work/rest cycles to protect crews, stay on schedule, and simplify heat safety.
The Escalating Cost of Unmanaged Heat: Key Findings from the Report
The survey data paints a clear picture: extreme heat is no longer a seasonal inconvenience, but a pervasive and costly operational crisis for the construction industry.
Heat Stress Incidents Are the Norm—Not the Exception
Our survey reveals that nearly 8 in 10 job sites (79%) are experiencing exertional heat stress events annually, with the average site seeing 5 to 10 heat-related incidents per year.
From dehydration and confusion to full-blown heat stroke, these frequent occurrences are clear indicators of systems under immense strain, and often, failing.
What’s Driving the Surge in Job-Site Heat Stress Incidents?
- Longer, hotter seasons: Dangerous heat now starts in May and extends into October, far past the traditional “summer” window. Cities like Austin recorded 45 days over 100°F in 2024—nearly triple its average.
- Training gaps: While 87% of companies cover heat stress in onboarding, only 31% feel highly confident in their policies. Under pressure, crews skip rest cycles and rely on self-monitoring.
Action: Schedule heavy work into pre-noon windows using a 3-day heat stress forecast, and post live readings at gate entrances so crews see real enforcement.
Heat Is Hurting Productivity—And Your Budget
Nearly 9 in 10 construction firms (89%) say productivity takes a hit as heat rises—and the data backs it up.
Once WBGT or heat index levels cross certain thresholds, crews slow their pace to avoid exhaustion, equipment gets too hot to handle, and key outdoor tasks—from concrete pours to steel work—get paused entirely.
Industry-wide, the average loss of 4–6 hours per site, per week translates to roughly $5 billion in annual schedule overruns and morale costs.
📉 59% have missed project deadlines due to heat
Work delays aren’t just a scheduling problem. Overtime costs, crew burnout, idle machines, and late deliveries ripple across the job—and your reputation.
Action: Use historical WBGT or heat index values to prove heat delays when negotiating weather allowances.
Poor Heat Safety = Worker Turnover
Exit interviews show a pattern: it’s not the one-time heat stroke that drives people away; it’s chronic discomfort and a sense that “management doesn’t have our backs.”
The financial hit is real: backfilling a skilled construction worker can run $8,000–$10,000 in recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity—not counting the learning curve.
Keep Your A-Team
- ✅ Enforce regular hydration breaks and shade access—especially under deadline pressure
- ✅ Tie enforcement to supervisor KPIs
- ✅ Share heat-policy updates and success metrics at toolbox talks to show crews their safety matters.
Protecting crews from extreme heat isn’t just compliance; it’s your best retention strategy.
Most Firms Track Heat—but Can’t Act on It
Perry Weather’s survey confirms that construction safety teams are already using heat index tracking tools and on-site real-time heat monitoring on their construction sites:
- ✅ 93% track on-site heat in real time
- ✅ 98% use forecasts to plan work schedules
But here’s where it breaks down:
- 49% of firms with formal heat policies can’t enforce them to maintain compliance
- 13% have no written heat safety policy at all
- 45% rely entirely on supervisors to manage heat risk in the field
- 18% don’t have a consistent system to document heat-related near misses
Many firms’ policies remain ineffective because they rely on general guidance or outdated OSHA work/rest charts that aren’t calibrated for extreme heat or dynamic site conditions.
Every Heat Stress Incident Costs You $5K–$10K
A single heat-related illness triggers a cascade of expenses—workers’ comp, medical bills, overtime, schedule overruns, rental extensions, and the very real risk of OSHA penalties.
On a typical site logging 5–10 events a year, that’s $25K–$100K evaporating from the budget—money that could have funded extra crews, new equipment, or margin-saving contingencies.
62% of construction leaders say better heat controls would lower their insurance premiums.
Carriers are already rewarding firms that can show airtight policies, real-time monitoring, and documented compliance.
Bottom line: Proactive work/rest cycles and heat index and WBGT-driven alerts aren’t “nice to have” extras—they’re tools that pay for themselves after the first avoided shutdown.
Work/Rest Schedules Are Not a Productivity Killer—They’re a Risk Optimizer
Many safety managers still see rest as a tradeoff. But the reality is that structured work/rest schedules are an ideal form of proactive risk mitigation.
Work/rest schedules translate dangerous conditions into quick decisions via clear, actionable thresholds based on WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature), heat index, or temperature.
Here’s a basic example of how they work:
| WBGT Reading | Work/Rest Recommendation | ||
| Light Work | Moderate Work | Heavy Work | |
| 80 – 85°F | Continuous | 50/10 min | 40/20 min |
| 85 – 88°F | Continuous | 40/20 min | 30/30 min |
| 88 – 90°F | Continuous | 30/30 min | 20/40 min |
| >90°F | 50/10 min | 20/40 min | 10/50 min |
The military, OSHA, and NIOSH have used this framework for decades, yet only 30% of construction firms apply it.
Workers Are Already Taking Breaks—Just Not Strategic Ones
- 48% of workers admit to ignoring heat safety protocols due to deadline pressure
- 35% don’t recognize the symptoms of heat stress, even if trained
You need structured, shorter, and more frequent breaks and intelligent shift planning—backed by policy and tech to reduce risks without grinding productivity to a halt.
Perry Weather’s Work/Rest Cycles: What Modern Construction Heat Safety Calls For
A decade ago, “heat safety” meant little more than following a laminated OSHA work-rest chart and reminding crews to drink water.
Today’s record-breaking temperatures demand a smarter approach—one that adapts to the way construction really works. Check out our newest feature, Enhanced Heat Stress Monitoring with Work/Rest Cycles, available for all Perry Weather customers.
Why the Old OSHA Work Rest Charts Don’t Cut It
- Static guidance in a dynamic environment: Standard work/rest charts offer a one-size-fits-none approach that ignores the micro-climates of a construction site.
- No context for PPE or workload: These heat work rest charts fail to factor in the additional metabolic heat generated by heavy personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Paper isn’t proof: When OSHA asks to see enforcement records, “We had the work rest chart posted” isn’t enough.
Unlike static OSHA work/rest charts or unreliable handheld sensors, Perry Weather delivers a dynamic, integrated solution that transforms heat stress data into real-time, site-specific action.
Adaptive Policy-Based Work/Rest Cycles
Our adaptive Work/Rest Cycles automate rest guidance, keeping crews safe and productive by factoring in critical variables:
- Environmental Conditions: Precise measurement of ambient temperature, humidity, solar radiation, and wind speed.
- Workload Intensity: Adjustments for light, moderate, or heavy exertion tasks.
- PPE Layers and Adjustments: Accounting for the heat-trapping effect of different personal protective equipment (PPE).
- Acclimatization Status: Considering a worker’s physiological adaptation to heat over time.
This ensures guidance is not just timely, but precisely tailored to your unique jobsite conditions.
Automated, Actionable Guidance
Once predefined heat thresholds are crossed, Perry Weather automatically triggers instant recommendations for the correct work/rest ratio (e.g., “50% work / 50% rest”).
These quick instructions are instantly dispatched to supervisors and crews via mobile devices, digital signage, and centralized dashboards.
Recommendations dynamically update based on 3-day forecast shifts, enabling continuous proactive planning.
Consistency & Compliance Across Your Operations
Perry Weather brings critical consistency across all sites, teams, and trades:
- Supervisors receive immediate, site-specific direction.
- Crews know exactly when—and why—to take breaks.
- Safety managers gain clear, defensible data to confidently enforce policies.
Whether overseeing a 10-person crew or a 500-worker site, Perry Weather brings clarity and consistency to heat safety decisions—without slowing you down.
The result? Smarter breaks, better protection, and less lost time.
Built for the Needs Construction Leaders Asked For
Our 250-construction leader survey told us exactly what the industry wants:
- 56% want automated rest alerts
- 51% want incident reporting tools
- 44% want personalized exposure tracking
- 44% want forecast-based shift scheduling
- 42% want jobsite dashboards
Perry Weather’s Work/Rest Cycles deliver these capabilities and more, plus secure data storage and plug-and-play integrations with your PA systems, and safety boards.
Stay Tuned for the Full 2025 Heat Safety in Construction Report
Smart contractors don’t wait for a safety incident to change how they operate. They prevent the incident in the first place.
Extreme heat is here to stay, but the confusion around it doesn’t have to. Look out for the full report soon to learn how construction leaders are reshaping heat safety for the modern job site—and access 40+ data points from 250 construction leaders, with insights into:
- The most common heat safety breakdowns that trigger OSHA scrutiny
- Real-world heat incident rates and the hidden six-figure costs that follow
- Heat-related worker turnover and what drives skilled labor off the site
- The technology gaps undermining otherwise solid safety and compliance plans
Perry Weather gives every construction leader the same, defensible playbook—no guesswork, just a clear path to keep people safe and projects moving.
And if you’re ready to see how Perry Weather’s Work/Rest Cycles can help your team stay safe and on schedule—book a demo or get a 14-day free trial today.
