Key findings
- Fall protection (1926.501) is the single most-cited standard in the dataset: 30,929citations and $219,033,473 in penalties, more than any other standard tracked, and nearly a quarter of all penalty dollars in the report despite being one of 26 standards covered.
- Construction accounts for 70,208 citations, about a third of the total across every sector in the dataset, more than double Manufacturing, the next-largest sector at 48,669.
- Citation volume declined each year from 2023 to 2025 — 55,381 in 2023 down to 48,555 in 2025 — a real trend, not a data gap, since this dataset's own coverage window does not change year to year.
- Penalty totals do not track citation counts. Lockout/tagout (1910.147) ranks 4th by citation count but 2nd by total penalty dollars ($126,843,490), meaning individual lockout/tagout citations carry a materially higher average penalty than the standards ranked above it.
- Illinois, not a Gulf Coast or Rust Belt state, leads all states in this dataset at 12,268 citations, ahead of Texas (11,116) and Maryland (10,446).
Most-cited standards
| Standard | Subject | Citations | Total penalties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1926.501 | Fall protection | 30,929 | $219,033,473 |
| 1910.1200 | Hazard communication (GHS) | 28,898 | $41,439,659 |
| 1910.134 | Respiratory protection | 17,672 | $32,500,733 |
| 1910.147 | Lockout/tagout | 17,359 | $126,843,490 |
| 1926.1053 / .1060 | Ladder safety | 15,070 | $51,174,214 |
| 1910.178 | Powered industrial trucks (forklift) | 12,902 | $51,571,005 |
| 1926.451 | Scaffolding | 11,522 | $46,926,497 |
| 1910.22 / .23 / .28 | Walking-working surfaces | 11,110 | $57,025,110 |
| 1910.212 | Machine guarding | 9,782 | $85,184,380 |
| 1910.132 / .133 | PPE / eye and face protection | 9,559 | $27,812,411 |
Full 26-standard breakdown, filterable by state and sector: most-cited-osha-standards explorer.
Top 10 states by citations
Top 10 sectors by citations
Citations by year
Methodology
This report is compiled from our own ingest of public U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement records, covering 2023-01-01 through 2026-07-20. Citations are grouped by standard, deduplicating standards documented by more than one of our training courses so a single enforcement action is never counted twice under two different names. State and sector breakdowns come from a separate join on the same underlying records and are reported for the 56 states and sectors where we have usable data — this is not a claim of complete 50-state coverage for every dimension.
Data pulled 2026-08-23 and refreshed periodically. Figures are initial penalty amounts as recorded by OSHA at time of citation, not final settled amounts, which are frequently reduced on appeal or informal settlement — a distinction publishers repackaging this data should preserve rather than imply these are final fines paid.
Using this data
Free to cite or build on with attribution. Suggested citation:
Full underlying figures: download the CSV. Questions about the dataset or a request for a custom cut: contact us.