Research·
OSHA's most-cited serious-violation standards
A handful of safety standards account for most of federal OSHA's serious violations. Fall-protection rules alone carry more than $687 million in penalties. Here are the ten standards employers are cited under most, by serious-violation count.
Across the federal OSHA enforcement record, a small set of standards accounts for the bulk of serious safety violations. The pattern is remarkably consistent: fall protection, scaffolding, machine hazards, hazardous energy, and electrical work recur again and again.
Ranked by the number of Serious-classified violations on the federal record, these are the ten most-cited OSHA standards, with the total current penalties assessed under each:
| # | Standard | Serious violations | Total penalties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1926.451 — Scaffolds, general requirements (construction) | 314,765 | $313.2M |
| 2 | 1910.1200 — Hazard communication | 276,280 | $148.6M |
| 3 | 1926.501 — Duty to have fall protection (construction) | 247,540 | $686.8M |
| 4 | 1910.212 — Machines, general requirements | 191,546 | $281.9M |
| 5 | 1910.219 — Mechanical power-transmission apparatus | 188,419 | $82.4M |
| 6 | 1910.147 — Control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) | 170,236 | $335.1M |
| 7 | 1910.305 — Wiring methods, components, and equipment | 154,753 | $89.5M |
| 8 | 1910.134 — Respiratory protection | 148,415 | $99.1M |
| 9 | 1910.303 — Electrical, general | 127,562 | $105.5M |
| 10 | 1910.215 — Abrasive wheel machinery | 116,346 | $38.7M |
A few things stand out. Fall protection (1926.501) does not lead on citation count, but it carries by far the largest penalty total — more than $687 million — a reflection of how often fall hazards are cited as serious or willful. Scaffolding (1926.451) leads on sheer volume. Together with electrical work and machine hazards, these map closely to OSHA's “fatal four” causes of construction deaths.
Manufacturing shows up through the machine-safety cluster — machine guarding (1910.212), power-transmission apparatus (1910.219), lockout/tagout (1910.147), and abrasive-wheel and woodworking machinery — the standards behind most amputation and caught-in injuries.
Figures are aggregated from federal OSHA citation records indexed at SafetyIncidents.org. Browse any standard's full citation history at /standards.