2025 OSHA TOP 10 MOST CITED
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration originally announced its Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2025 back in September at the 2025 NSC Safety Congress & Expo, in Denver, CO. This month, Safety + Health magazine published more details about the violations. You can read the article in the December 2025 issue, or online here: OSHA's Top 10 | Safety+Health
OSHA’s Top 10 list isn’t just a recap of violations. It’s a roadmap for businesses to prioritize compliance efforts. These standards highlight where risks (and citations) are most common, making them a practical starting point for safety programs.
The Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for FY 2025 are:
- Fall Protection – General Requirements (1926.501): 5,914 violations
- Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,546
- Ladders (1926.1053): 2,405
- Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,177
- Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 1,953
- Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503): 1,907
- Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,905
- Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 1,826
- Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,665
- Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,239
The standards that make up the Top 10 remained unchanged from FY 2024, with some movement within their ranking. Lockout/Tagout (1910.147), which ranked fifth in FY 2024, moved to No. 4. Machine Guarding (1910.212) remains on the list at number 10, with 1,239 citations.
Overall, 8 of the 10 categories had fewer violations this year than in the previous year
History of Machine Guarding in the top 10 most cited violations:
| Year | Position | Violations |
| 2024 | 10 | 1,541 |
| 2023 | 10 | 1,644 |
| 2022 | 10 | 1,469 |
| 2021 | 10 | 1,113 |
| 2020 | 10 | 1,313 |
| 2019 | 9 | 1,743 |
| 2018 | 9 | 1,972 |
| 2017 | 8 | 1,933 |
| 2016 | 8 | 2,451 |
| 2015 | 9 | 2,540 |
| 2014 | 9 | 2,520 |
| 2013 | 10 | 2,852 |
| 2012 | 6 | 2,097 |
| 2011 | 10 | 2,728 |
| 2010 | 10 | 2,364 |
Other OSHA machine guarding news:
Back in June, OSHA renewed the National Emphasis Program on Amputations in Manufacturing Industries for another 5 years. This program includes scheduled inspections of establishments, focusing on “operation, servicing, maintenance, control of hazardous energy sources, and/or machine guarding of all machinery and equipment that can potentially present amputation hazards to workers.” Read the full OSHA Instruction publication here; CPL 03-00-027 National Emphasis Program Amputations in Manufacturing
