OSHA Inspections and Citations in 2015
Federal and state-plan OSHA inspections, citations and penalties recorded in 2015.
OSHA and state-plan agencies opened 86,427 inspections in 2015, 6.4% fewer than in 2014, and issued 175,550 citation items carrying $207,662,023 in current penalties. California recorded the most inspections (8,603), followed by Oregon and Michigan. Hazard Communication (1910.1200) was the most cited standard, with 11,583 citations. Planned inspections were the most common type (36,143), followed by complaint inspections (18,927).
Inspections and states count by year opened. Citations, penalties and standards count by year issued. Do not add the two groups together.
Most cited standards
| # | Standard | Citations | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1910.1200Hazard Communication | 11,583 | $4,062,313 |
| 2 | 1926.501Fall Protection - Duty to Have Fall Protection | 9,972 | $25,283,564 |
| 3 | 1910.134Respiratory Protection | 6,188 | $2,952,809 |
| 4 | 1926.451Scaffolding - General Requirements | 5,732 | $9,596,544 |
| 5 | 1910.305Wiring methods, components, and equipment for general use | 5,499 | $3,707,982 |
| 6 | 1910.147The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) | 5,485 | $12,110,314 |
| 7 | 1910.303 | 4,677 | $4,612,927 |
| 8 | 1910.178Powered Industrial Trucks | 4,589 | $5,502,416 |
| 9 | 1910.212General Requirements for All Machines (Machine Guarding) | 4,068 | $10,728,564 |
| 10 | 1926.1053Ladders (Construction) | 3,798 | $4,609,126 |
Federal standards combine all of their subsections.
See the top 50 standards cited in 2015 →Inspections opened by type
Type labels as defined in DOL's OSHA enforcement data.
Inspections opened by state
16 inspections with other or missing state codes are not listed.
State Plan: OSHA-approved plan covering private and public employers. Public only: State Plan for state and local government workers only. No plan: federal OSHA has jurisdiction over private sector workplaces. Source: osha.gov/stateplans.
Other OSHA records for 2015
Severe injury reports
Employer reports of an amputation, in-patient hospitalization or loss of an eye, by event date. Federal OSHA jurisdiction only; incidents in State Plan states are not included, per OSHA. Source: osha.gov.
Injury and illness summaries (Form 300A)
OSHA has collected Form 300A summary data since 2016.
Inspections opened per year, 1970 to 2026
Questions about 2015
How many OSHA inspections were opened in 2015?
86,427 federal and state-plan inspections were opened in 2015.
Which OSHA standard was cited most in 2015?
Hazard Communication (1910.1200), with 11,583 citation items issued in 2015.
Which state had the most OSHA inspections in 2015?
California, with 8,603 inspections opened, followed by Oregon (4,775).
How does 2015 compare with 2014?
Inspections opened went from 92,344 to 86,427 (-6.4%). Citation items issued went from 191,199 to 175,550 (-8.2%).
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All years
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Data Source and Methodology
DOL source dataData on this page comes from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement database, accessed via the DOL public data API. Errors in data processing or establishment grouping are possible. Penalty amounts are the latest on record and may differ from the initial assessment or the final amount after informal conference, settlement or judicial review. Company pages group records by employer name, city and state as OSHA reported them, not by legal entity (methodology). Found an error? Report it. This product uses the DOL Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the DOL. For official and authoritative records, visit osha.gov.
SafetyRecord also offers this data as an API and bulk files, with inspections grouped by establishment and a record of how citations change after OSHA publishes them: Data & API.