OSHA's Top 10 Most Cited Standards for FY2025
Each year OSHA names the standards its inspectors cite most. The list below is OSHA's official Top 10 for fiscal year 2025, which ran October 2024 through September 2025. Against each one we set what the enforcement records show: how often it was cited, how that count has moved over five years, and the penalties on record.
Citation counts come from the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement dataset, counted by issuance year across federal and state-plan programs, with delete-flagged records excluded. Standard titles are OSHA's. Figures cover the last fully settled calendar year, 2024, and were retrieved from the dataset in June 2026.
Key findings
- Fall protection, 29 CFR 1926.501, is OSHA's number one most cited standard, and it held the top spot in the enforcement records every year from 2020 to 2024. It was cited 8,797 times in 2024, with $53.8 million in current penalties, the most on both counts.
- The 10 standards together account for 45,819 citations in 2024, 33.6 percent of all standard citations recorded that year, and $152.3 million in current penalties, 43.4 percent of the total.
- The list splits evenly between five general industry standards (29 CFR 1910) and five construction standards (29 CFR 1926).
- Hazard communication, 29 CFR 1910.1200, is the most cited general industry standard, at 8,184 citations in 2024.
OSHA's official Top 10 (FY2025)
| Rank | Standard | What it covers | 2024 citations | 2024 penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1926.501 | Fall protection, construction | 8,797 | $53.8M |
| 2 | 1910.1200 | Hazard communication | 8,184 | $7.7M |
| 3 | 1926.1053 | Ladders, construction | 3,734 | $11.0M |
| 4 | 1910.147 | Lockout/tagout | 4,713 | $24.0M |
| 5 | 1910.134 | Respiratory protection | 5,350 | $6.3M |
| 6 | 1926.451 | Scaffolding, construction | 2,654 | $9.6M |
| 7 | 1926.503 | Fall protection training | 3,488 | $5.8M |
| 8 | 1910.178 | Powered industrial trucks | 3,710 | $9.7M |
| 9 | 1926.102 | Eye and face protection | 2,492 | $7.7M |
| 10 | 1910.212 | Machine guarding | 2,697 | $16.8M |
Rows follow OSHA's fiscal-year ranking, so the citation counts, which are our calendar-2024 figures, are not in descending order. The reason is explained below. Penalty figures are current penalties on record, rounded to the nearest $100,000. OSHA's official ranking is published at osha.gov/top10citedstandards.
What each standard requires
- 1926.501 requires fall protection for construction work at height, generally six feet or more above a lower level.
- 1910.1200 requires employers to classify chemical hazards and convey them through labels, safety data sheets, and worker training.
- 1926.1053 sets requirements for ladder condition, capacity, and use in construction.
- 1910.147 requires procedures to control hazardous energy while servicing and maintaining machines.
- 1910.134 requires a respiratory protection program where respirators are used, including fit testing and medical evaluation.
- 1926.451 sets general requirements for scaffold construction, capacity, and use.
- 1926.503 requires employers to train workers who are exposed to fall hazards.
- 1910.178 covers safe operation, maintenance, and operator training for forklifts and other powered industrial trucks.
- 1926.102 requires eye and face protection where construction work exposes workers to those hazards.
- 1910.212 requires machines to be guarded against hazards such as points of operation and rotating parts.
Full regulatory text for each standard is published by the Office of the Federal Register in the eCFR, Title 29.
Five-year movement, 2020 to 2024
Over five years some of these climbed and others held steady. Lockout/tagout (1910.147) rose from 3,114 citations in 2020 to 4,713 in 2024. Powered industrial trucks (1910.178) rose from 2,345 to 3,710. Scaffolding (1926.451) stayed between about 3,000 and 3,700 for four years before dropping to 2,654 in 2024. Fall protection was the most cited standard every year, ranging from 7,145 to 9,263.
Penalties
Citation volume and penalties do not move together. Fall protection carried the largest penalty total in 2024 at $53.8 million. Lockout/tagout ($24.0 million) and machine guarding ($16.8 million) carried more penalty dollars than several standards that were cited more often, which reflects how frequently those two are cited as serious. All figures are current penalties on record, after reductions to date. Across the 10 standards, current penalties totaled $152.3 million in 2024.
How our counts compare to OSHA's ranking
OSHA's published ranking is federal and by fiscal year. Our counts are by calendar year and include state-plan programs that cite under the same federal code, so the order shifts. In our 2024 data the order runs fall protection, hazard communication, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout, ladders, powered industrial trucks, fall protection training, machine guarding, scaffolding, and eye and face protection. The same ten standards appear, only the internal order moves. For the full ranked list with year and state filters, see most cited standards. The two highest are covered in depth in our fall protection report and hazard communication report.
Methodology and sources
Citation counts are from the U.S. DOL OSHA enforcement dataset (developer.dol.gov), counted by citation issuance date, federal and state-plan programs combined, delete-flagged records excluded, and aggregated to the standard level. Counting by standard code differs slightly from counting individual violation records, so totals here can differ marginally from a per-violation count. Penalty values are current penalties on record. The Top 10 ranking and standard titles are OSHA's, published at osha.gov/top10citedstandards (FY2025). Regulatory text: Office of the Federal Register, eCFR Title 29. Some state-plan states, including California, Washington, and Oregon, maintain their own code systems, and citations recorded under those state codes are not folded into the federal standard counts here. No records are estimated.
Fall protection in construction, 29 CFR 1926.501. OSHA ranks it number one for FY2025, and it was the most cited standard in the enforcement records every year from 2020 to 2024.
Ten. For FY2025 they split evenly between five general industry standards (29 CFR 1910) and five construction standards (29 CFR 1926).
29 CFR 1910 covers general industry, and 29 CFR 1926 covers construction.
OSHA updates the ranking each fiscal year. The standards involved are usually stable from year to year, while the internal order can shift.
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.