i don't think you're thinking through the incentives-- with higher labor costs the employer has an incentive to take steps to make the job less hazardous.

You say this is as though I were dunking on the idea of hazard pay, and that my dunking deserved a riposte dunking. I am not against hazard pay. Companies have not eliminated hazardous work in Vietnam yet, so the incentive has not gone all the way to its intended end.