Borg RPE Scale

Overview

The Borg RPE Scale is a validated psychophysical tool used to measure a worker's subjective perception of physical effort during a task — providing a quantified measure of how hard the body is working as perceived by the person performing it. The scale runs from six to twenty — with verbal anchors ranging from no exertion at all to maximal exertion — and correlates closely with objective physiological measures including heart rate and oxygen consumption. In ergonomics, the Borg RPE is used to assess the physical demand of manual handling tasks, evaluate fatigue during repetitive work, and monitor worker response to ergonomic interventions over time.