76% of OSHA's Construction Fall Protection Citations Hit Houses: The FY2025 Data on 1926.501(b)(13)

In fiscal year 2025, federal OSHA wrote 6,778 fall protection citations under 29 CFR 1926.501 in construction, and 5,142 of them, 76%, cited a single paragraph: (b)(13), residential construction. Take that paragraph out and the most-cited construction standard in the country drops to 1,636 citations. The data below comes from the Department of Labor's own enforcement records, and it says something most fall protection training doesn't: the citation OSHA writes most often in construction is a roof on a house, and the employer it lands on is usually a roofer or a framer.

In FY2025, 5,142 of the 6,778 federal OSHA construction citations under 29 CFR 1926.501 cited paragraph (b)(13), which requires guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest for residential construction work 6 feet or more above a lower level; roofing contractors received 56% of them and framing contractors 33%.

At a glance (FY2025, federal OSHA, construction NAICS 23): 6,778 citations under 1926.501 · 5,142 under (b)(13), 75.9% · roofers 56.4%, framers 32.6% · 75.1% from planned inspections · 21.6% classified repeat · $35.6M in current penalties, 79% of the standard's total · the ladder rule 1926.1053(b)(1): 1,910 citations, 71% to roofers.

One paragraph, three quarters of the citations

1926.501 lists fifteen situations that call for fall protection, from unprotected edges to wall openings. In FY2025 construction enforcement, one of them carried the standard.

Read that against the paragraphs roofers might expect to see. Low-slope roofing, (b)(10), drew 409 citations. Steep roofs, (b)(11), drew 311. Both are roofing paragraphs, and together they don't reach a seventh of (b)(13). On houses, OSHA writes the residential paragraph far more often than either roofing one.

What (b)(13) actually says

The paragraph is short, and it doesn't offer a lighter standard for houses. It offers the same three systems as everywhere else.

"Each employee engaged in residential construction activities 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above lower levels shall be protected by guardrail systems, safety net system, or personal fall arrest system unless another provision in paragraph (b) of this section provides for an alternative fall protection measure."

29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13), verbatim

The exception is where most confusion lives. An employer that can demonstrate that those systems are infeasible or create a greater hazard may use a written fall protection plan under 1926.502(k). The note to (b)(13) closes the door most contractors hope is open: "There is a presumption that it is feasible and will not create a greater hazard to implement at least one of the above-listed fall protection systems." The burden sits with the employer.

What counts as residential isn't in Part 1926 at all. OSHA's compliance directive STD 03-11-002, effective June 16, 2011, reads it as two elements: the end use of the structure must be a home, and it must be built with traditional wood frame construction materials and methods. A steel I-beam carrying part of a wood-framed house doesn't change the answer. The same directive canceled OSHA's 1999 interim enforcement policy for specified residential activities (STD 03-00-001), and it states that fall protection plans used under (b)(13) "must be written and site-specific."

The plan option, as the rule writes it

If you rely on 1926.502(k), the plan has to be:

• prepared by a qualified person, for the specific site, and kept up to date (1926.502(k)(1));
• kept at the job site, with every approved change (k)(3);
• implemented under the supervision of a competent person (k)(4);
• explicit about why guardrails, nets and personal fall arrest are infeasible or more hazardous (k)(5), and about the other measures taken (k)(6);
• specific about each location where conventional protection can't be used, each one a controlled access zone (k)(7), with the name of every employee allowed in it (k)(9).

A generic plan in the truck, the same for every roof, fails (k)(1) on its face.

Who gets cited: roofers and framers

The NAICS code on the inspection tells you the trade. For the 5,142 residential citations, two trades account for nine in ten.

New single-family general contractors (236115) appear on fewer than 2% of the citations. On a residential site, the citation goes to the employer whose crew is on the roof. A GC can still be cited as the controlling employer under OSHA's multi-employer policy, and our guide to multi-employer worksites explains when.

How the inspector got there: three in four came from planned inspections

The inspection type recorded on each case shows why these citations cluster.

Most residential fall citations don't start with a complaint or an injury. They start with an inspector who saw a crew on a roof. OSHA's national emphasis program on falls, CPL 03-00-025, effective May 1, 2023, says so in terms: "CSHOs are authorized to initiate inspections under the scope of this NEP whenever they observe someone working at heights. These observations may occur during the CSHO's normal work-day travel or while en route to, from, or during, other OSHA inspections." The same directive asks Regions and Area Offices to develop targeting that reaches "industry sectors where fall protection is often lacking, such as residential construction and servicing activities."

A crew on a pitched roof without fall protection is visible from the street. The data shows OSHA looks.

One in five is a repeat

The serious share matches construction as a whole. The repeat share is two and a half times higher. OSHA can classify a violation as repeated when it cited the same employer before for the same or a substantially similar hazard and that citation became a final order; it doesn't have to be the same site or the same supervisor (Field Operations Manual, chapter 4). These are companies with a final fall citation on the books that put a crew back on a roof without protection. The penalty maximum for a repeated violation is ten times the serious maximum: $165,514 against $16,550 in 2026 (29 CFR 1903.15(d)).

The money

(b)(13) is where the fall protection dollars are, too.

• Proposed: $43,682,954 across the 5,142 citations, $8,495 on average.
• Current, after informal settlements and contests: $35,552,223, $6,914 on average, 18.6% below the proposed amount.
• Share of 1926.501: 79.0% of every current penalty dollar under the fall protection standard in construction.

A median of three employees were listed as exposed on each citation. That is a roofing crew.

The ladder citation is the same roof

The second most-cited construction standard, ladders, tells the same story from the bottom of the ladder.

"When portable ladders are used for access to an upper landing surface, the ladder side rails shall extend at least 3 feet (.9 m) above the upper landing surface to which the ladder is used to gain access."

29 CFR 1926.1053(b)(1), verbatim (when the extension isn't possible, the ladder is secured at its top and a grab rail is provided)

In FY2025, 1,910 of the 2,759 federal construction citations under 1926.1053 cited (b)(1), 69.2%. Roofing contractors took 1,360 of them, 71.2%, and framers 321. Seventy-two percent came from planned inspections. For most of them, that's the ladder a roofing crew climbed to reach the eave. Current penalties under (b)(1) totaled $7.4 million, 21.3% below the $9.4 million proposed.

Where the citations were written

Federal jurisdiction only: State Plan states such as California, Washington and Michigan run their own enforcement and don't appear here.

These are raw counts, not rates per worker. Each state's own figures, with the paragraphs cited there, are on its fall protection penalty page.

What a residential contractor should do with this

1. Assume (b)(13) applies on every house. Wood frame and a home at the end: that is the directive's test. Six feet is the trigger, not the eave height of a two-story.
2. Pick the system before the crew climbs. Guardrails at the eave, a safety net, or personal fall arrest with an anchor rated for it. Run the numbers on free fall and clearance with our fall clearance calculator before a 6-foot lanyard meets a 12-foot eave.
3. Write the plan only when you can prove you need it. If a conventional system truly can't be used, build the 1926.502(k) plan for that house, signed off by a qualified person, with the controlled access zones named. Our free fall protection plan builder walks through each element.
4. Extend the ladder 3 feet. It's the second citation on the same inspection. Our ladder selector covers the setup rules.
5. Keep the training record OSHA asks for. 1926.503(b)(1) requires a written certification with the employee's name, the training date and the trainer's or employer's signature. HazComFast keeps training certificates and signed toolbox talks per worker, so the record is on a phone, not in a trailer.

Methodology and limits

• Source. U.S. Department of Labor OSHA enforcement data, inspection and violation tables, retrieved September 26, 2026 through the DOL data API.
• Scope. Citations issued October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025 on inspections of construction employers (NAICS 23) under federal OSHA jurisdiction; State Plan inspections excluded (identified by the reporting office); deleted citations excluded.
• Cross-check. Summed over all federal states, the count for 1926.501 is 6,778, against 6,772 in OSHA's own Frequently Cited Standards tool for the same year and scope, extracted August 15, 2026.
• Penalties. "Proposed" is the initial penalty on the citation. "Current" is the amount on record at extraction, after informal settlements and contests. It isn't necessarily the amount collected, and contested cases can still change.
• Paragraphs. The paragraph is the one written on each citation item. Groupings such as "(b)(4), both subparagraphs" add (b)(4)(i) and (b)(4)(ii).
• Not measured. Rates per worker or per project; the data counts citations, not exposure.

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Sources & verification (counts extracted September 26, 2026; regulatory texts read September 29, 2026): enforcement counts from the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement data (data.dol.gov); 29 CFR 1926.501, 1926.502(k), 1926.503(b) and 1926.1053(b)(1) read on the eCFR; OSHA directives STD 03-11-002 (residential construction) and CPL 03-00-025 (National Emphasis Program, Falls) read in the official PDFs on osha.gov; the repeated-violation criteria in the Field Operations Manual, chapter 4, on osha.gov; 2026 penalty maximums from 29 CFR 1903.15(d). Related: fall protection in construction, the complete guide, why falls stay OSHA's number one construction hazard, and the 1926.501 standard page. General guidance, not legal advice.