Cal/OSHA: California's State Plan and Enforcement Records
California does not rely on federal OSHA for most workplace safety enforcement. It runs its own program, Cal/OSHA, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. California is one of 22states and territories that operate a full OSHA-approved state plan covering both private and public sector workers, and Cal/OSHA enforces California's own standards under Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.
This report summarizes the California enforcement records held in the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement database, which includes the inspections that state-plan programs report. It covers how many inspections and violations are on record, what gets inspected, and which standards California cites most. Because California enforces its own rules, those most-cited standards are California Title 8 sections rather than the federal 29 CFR parts. Data retrieved June 2026.
Key findings
- The enforcement database holds 376,059 Cal/OSHA inspection records across 263,488 California establishments, with 686,008 violations and about $606 million in penalties on record.
- Cal/OSHA opened roughly 6,000 to 8,600 inspections per year over the past decade, with a dip in 2020 and 2021 followed by a return toward earlier levels.
- Complaint-driven inspections are the largest category in California (127,257), ahead of planned (98,997) and accident inspections (83,759).
- About 78% of inspections on record are safety inspections and about 22% are health inspections.
- Of the 686,008 violations, 139,591 are recorded as serious, 5,578 as repeat, and 1,009 as willful.
- The standards cited most are California Title 8 regulations, led by the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (Section 3203) and the Heat Illness Prevention standard (Section 3395), which have no direct federal counterpart.
How Cal/OSHA works
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Act lets a state run its own occupational safety and health program if the federal government approves it as at least as effective as federal OSHA. California operates such a plan through Cal/OSHA, which covers both private sector employers and state and local government employers. Cal/OSHA writes and enforces standards in Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, and in several areas those standards are more specific than the federal rules.
Because Cal/OSHA handles enforcement, the inspection and violation records for California reflect its activity, not federal OSHA inspections. State-plan programs report their enforcement data to the federal system, which is why these California records appear in the same U.S. Department of Labor database used across this site. For the federal program and the list of all state plans, see OSHA's State Plans page.
Inspections on record by year
The database goes back to the 1970s and holds 376,059 California inspection records in total. Over the past decade, annual inspection counts ran in the 6,000 to 8,700 range. Counts fell in 2020 and 2021, the period covering the COVID-19 pandemic, and then moved back toward earlier levels.
What gets inspected
California's inspection mix leans toward complaints. Complaint inspections are the single largest category on record, ahead of planned and accident inspections. That ordering differs from the federal national picture, where planned inspections are the largest single share. Inspection-type labels follow the U.S. Department of Labor metadata for the enforcement data.
| Inspection type | Inspections on record |
|---|---|
| Complaint (B) | 127,257 |
| Planned (H) | 98,997 |
| Accident (A) | 83,759 |
| Unprogrammed Related (G) | 29,559 |
| Referral (C) | 17,111 |
| Follow-Up (F) | 9,772 |
| Programmed Related (I) | 6,535 |
| Fatality/Catastrophe (M) | 3,506 |
Largest inspection-type categories on record; smaller categories are present in lower numbers. Type labels follow the U.S. Department of Labor metadata for the enforcement data.
By focus, about 78% of the inspections on record are safety inspections and about 22% are health inspections. The most inspected industries are construction trades and agriculture, two sectors that loom large in California and that Cal/OSHA covers with targeted standards.
| Industry (NAICS) | Inspections | Establishments |
|---|---|---|
| Specialty Trade Contractors (238) | 31,904 | 26,817 |
| Construction of Buildings (236) | 21,781 | 16,939 |
| Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction (237) | 10,815 | 5,567 |
| Administrative and Support Services (561) | 10,801 | 9,006 |
| Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry (115) | 8,622 | 6,016 |
| Crop Production (111) | 7,507 | 5,101 |
| Repair and Maintenance (811) | 5,942 | 5,295 |
| Food Manufacturing (311) | 5,842 | 2,685 |
Top eight industries by inspection count, NAICS three-digit subsector. Establishment counts are distinct California establishments with inspection records in each subsector.
Violations and penalties
Across the California records, 686,008 violations are on file with about $606 million in penalties as currently recorded. Of those violations, 139,591 are classified as serious, 5,578 as repeat, and 1,009 as willful, with most of the remainder classified as other-than-serious. These are the classifications assigned in the enforcement records; penalty figures reflect the latest amount on record, which can change for cases that are not yet final.
California's own standards
The clearest sign that these records reflect Cal/OSHA rather than federal OSHA is the standards cited. The requirements cited most often are California Title 8 sections, not the federal 29 CFR parts. The single most frequently cited requirement is California's Injury and Illness Prevention Program (Title 8 Section 3203), which requires nearly every California employer to maintain a written safety program. Federal OSHA has no equivalent nationwide mandate.
Other heavily cited California standards include the Heat Illness Prevention standard (Title 8 Section 3395), which sets requirements such as shade, water, and rest for outdoor work, and California's Hazard Communication standard (Title 8 Section 5194). The prominence of the heat-illness and injury-and-illness-prevention standards reflects rules California adopted that go beyond the federal framework.
What this data is and is not
These are enforcement records: inspections Cal/OSHA conducted and the violations and penalties tied to them, as held in the U.S. Department of Labor database. They are not a measure of how safe California workplaces are overall, and the raw counts are not normalized for the size of California's workforce. Because California enforces under its own Title 8 standards, its totals are not directly comparable to a federal-OSHA state operating under 29 CFR; the two run under different rules and reporting practices. For California employer-level records, browse the California state page.
Methodology and sources
Figures are counts from the OSHA inspection and violation records for California establishments (site state CA) in the U.S. Department of Labor enforcement data API, which includes inspections reported by state-plan programs such as Cal/OSHA. Inspection totals reflect distinct inspection records; establishment counts reflect distinct establishments. Violation classifications (serious, willful, repeat, other-than-serious) and penalty amounts use the values recorded in the violation data, excluding records flagged as deleted; penalty figures are the latest amount on record and can change for cases without a final order. Inspection type labels follow the U.S. Department of Labor metadata for the inspection data. Standard references are California Code of Regulations, Title 8. State-plan status is from OSHA's State Plans program. Records are synced daily; figures retrieved June 2026.
Cal/OSHA, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, is California's state OSHA plan. It runs workplace safety and health enforcement for most private and public sector employers in California under standards in the California Code of Regulations, Title 8. Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, a state may run its own plan if it is at least as effective as federal OSHA, and California is one of these state-plan states.
For most California workplaces, enforcement is handled by Cal/OSHA rather than federal OSHA. A small number of workplaces, such as some maritime and federal sites, remain under federal jurisdiction. The records summarized here come from the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement database, which includes the inspections that state-plan programs like Cal/OSHA report.
California enforces its own Title 8 regulations, so the standards cited most often in the California records are California sections such as the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (Title 8 Section 3203) and the Heat Illness Prevention standard (Title 8 Section 3395), rather than the federal 29 CFR parts. Some of these California requirements, including the statewide Injury and Illness Prevention Program mandate, have no direct federal equivalent.
The enforcement database holds 376,059 inspection records for California establishments, going back to the 1970s, along with 686,008 violations and about $606 million in penalties on record. In recent years Cal/OSHA has opened roughly 6,000 to 8,600 inspections per year.
Data Source and Methodology
Data synced dailyData on this page comes from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement database, accessed via the DOL public data API. Records are updated daily. We strive for accuracy, but errors in data processing or establishment grouping are possible. Penalty amounts reflect the latest penalty amounts on record in the DOL database and may differ from initial assessments or final amounts after informal conference, settlement, or judicial review. Company pages group inspection records by normalized employer name, city, and state as reported in OSHA records. That grouping is deterministic and non-fuzzy, but it is not a universal legal-entity identifier. If you believe any record is inaccurate, please report it and we will investigate. This product uses the DOL Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the DOL. For official and authoritative records, visit osha.gov.