Earthworms are the major component of the soil fauna in temperate agro-ecosystems. Land use and soil management are widely reported to influence earthworm populations. We report a simple laboratory experiment in which earthworm survival was tested against uniaxial loads for a range of soil conditions. While greater loads (up to 800kPa) over longer durations (up to 60s) decreased the proportion of earthworms surviving, our results suggest that decreased earthworm populations in compacted soil are likely to be a result of changes to the soil properties rather than a result of the act of compaction itself.