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Original data study29 CFR 1910.1200FY2020 to FY2026CSV · code
Seven years of OSHA hazard communication citations, counted paragraph by paragraph
From October 1, 2019 through September 10, 2026, the latest issuance date in the data, federal OSHA and the State Plans issued 57,508 hazard communication citation items in 31,287 inspections. Four paragraphs of 29 CFR 1910.1200 carry 84% of the items that name one: written hazard communication program ((e)(1)), information and training ((h)(1)), workplace labeling ((f)(6)) and safety data sheets readily accessible ((g)(8)). 53% were classified serious. After the settlements recorded so far, the median HazCom penalty per inspection was $1,702 when federal OSHA inspected and $105 when a State Plan did.
Department of Labor enforcement data extracted October 13, 2026 · by HazComFast · method, data and code below
Key findings
157,508 HazCom citation items in 31,287 inspections over 7 fiscal years, the last one through September 10, 2026. 67% came from State Plan offices, which OSHA's own Top 10 does not count.
2The written program, 1910.1200(e)(1), is the single most cited HazCom paragraph: 20,455 items, 39% of the items that name a paragraph. Training under (h)(1) follows with 12,498.
352% of the inspections ended with a single HazCom item. When there were several, the most frequent set was the written program, training and safety data sheets, cited together in 5,007 inspections.
453% of the items were classified serious: 66% in federal OSHA inspections, 47% in State Plan inspections. 1,231 were repeat and 67 willful.
5After the settlements recorded so far, the median HazCom penalty per inspection was $1,702 in federal OSHA inspections and $105 in State Plan inspections. 43% of all HazCom inspections carried no current HazCom penalty.
6Construction employers drew 21% of the items. Only 118 items in seven years cite 1926.59, the construction section.
771% of the items went to establishments with 25 or fewer employees.
854% of the items came from unprogrammed inspections, the ones opened after a complaint, a referral, an accident or a follow-up.
9Over the same months, October 1 to August 31, FY2026 counted 9% fewer HazCom items than FY2025: federal OSHA offices 28% fewer, State Plan offices 1% fewer.
10OSHA announced 2,546 HazCom violations for FY2025, from federal inspections through August 12, 2025. The database holds 2,495 federal items under 1910.1200 for the same dates, and 9,177 HazCom items for the full year once the State Plans are added.
A citation item is one line of an OSHA citation: one standard, usually one paragraph, in one inspection. OSHA's own Top 10 counts the same unit and calls it a violation. Every figure on this page is a count or a ratio of counts from the Department of Labor's public enforcement data. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
The two paragraphs at the top of the list, the written program and training, are the ones you can check before Friday. Score your own program against them for free, or, if a citation is already on your desk, go to the abatement guide.
The low point is FY2021, with 6,069 items, the year HazCom fell to #5 on OSHA's own list. Citations trail inspections: the median HazCom inspection got its first citation 79 days after it opened. More than half of the FY2021 items came from inspections opened from April 2020 through February 2021, the first year of the pandemic, when federal OSHA and the State Plans opened an average of 4,023 inspections a month, against 6,160 from October 2019 through February 2020. Fewer of them ended with a HazCom item, too: 60 per thousand inspections opened in FY2021, against 69 in FY2020. The high point is FY2025, with 9,177. FY2026 is counted through September 10, 2026, the latest issuance date in the data on October 13, 2026, so its last weeks are missing and it cannot be compared with a full year. Its penalties are still moving too, as open cases settle.
HazCom citation items issued per fiscal year, federal OSHA and State Plans, FY2020 to FY2026 (FY2026 through September 10, 2026). HazComFast count of DOL enforcement data, extracted October 13, 2026.
Category
citation items
FY20
8,631
FY21
6,069
FY22
7,477
FY23
9,145
FY24
9,170
FY25
9,177
FY26 (through September 10, 2026)
7,839
HazCom citation items issued per fiscal year, federal OSHA and State Plans, FY2020 to FY2026 (FY2026 through September 10, 2026). HazComFast count of DOL enforcement data, extracted October 13, 2026.
HazCom citation items, inspections, serious share and penalties by fiscal year
Fiscal year
Items
Inspections
Federal OSHA items
State Plan items
Serious
Penalties, current
FY2020
8,631
4,839
3,166
5,465
51%
$5,652,736
FY2021
6,069
3,276
1,897
4,172
52%
$4,047,807
FY2022
7,477
3,987
2,606
4,871
55%
$5,605,117
FY2023
9,145
4,889
3,202
5,943
55%
$7,439,137
FY2024
9,170
5,082
3,130
6,040
53%
$7,539,522
FY2025
9,177
4,922
2,993
6,184
53%
$9,147,108
FY2026*
7,839
4,295
1,982
5,857
54%
$7,214,258
Items are counted in the fiscal year of their issuance date. *FY2026 through September 10, 2026, the latest issuance date in the data. State Plan items include those cited under California's T8 section 5194, Washington's WAC 296-901 and Oregon's OAR 437-004-9800.
The paragraphs inspectors cite
A HazCom citation names a paragraph, and the paragraph tells you what failed. 53,129 items in the study name one. The ten most frequent:
HazCom citation items by paragraph, FY2020 to FY2026, federal OSHA and State Plans (California 5194 shares the lettering).
Category
citation items
1910.1200(e)(1)
20,455
1910.1200(h)(1)
12,498
1910.1200(f)(6)
5,895
1910.1200(g)(8)
5,535
1910.1200(g)(1)
4,271
1910.1200(h)(3)
1,958
1910.1200(h)(2)
680
1910.1200(e)
307
1910.1200(f)(10)
260
1910.1200(e)(2)
188
HazCom citation items by paragraph, FY2020 to FY2026, federal OSHA and State Plans (California 5194 shares the lettering).
Most cited HazCom paragraphs with serious share and median penalty
Paragraph
Share
Serious
Median penalty*
(e)(1)Written hazard communication program
38.5%
53%
$1,288
(h)(1)Information and training
23.5%
66%
$1,492
(f)(6)Workplace labeling
11.1%
53%
$1,350
(g)(8)Safety data sheets readily accessible
10.4%
52%
$1,000
(g)(1)A safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical
8.0%
56%
$1,600
(h)(3)What the training must cover
3.7%
63%
$3,138
(h)(2)Information
1.3%
53%
$1,994
(e)Written hazard communication program
0.6%
1%
$260
(f)(10)Workplace labels legible, in English, displayed
0.5%
47%
$3,277
(e)(2)Multi-employer workplaces
0.4%
41%
$2,429
*Median current penalty of the items that carry one.
1910.1200(e)(1) · 20,455 items
Written hazard communication program
"Employers shall develop, implement, and maintain at each workplace, a written hazard communication program which at least describes how the criteria specified in paragraphs (f), (g), and (h) of this section for labels and other forms of warning, safety data sheets, and employee information and training will be met"
It is a document the officer can ask for before walking the floor, and the review is concrete. Does the chemical list required by (e)(1)(i) match what is on the shelves and in the trucks? Does the program say how labels, SDSs and training work at this location? A template with no chemical list, or one written for another site, does not meet the paragraph as written.
1910.1200(h)(1) · 12,498 items
Information and training
"Employers shall provide employees with effective information and training on hazardous chemicals in their work area at the time of their initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained about is introduced into their work area."
Employee interviews. Where are the safety data sheets kept? What does this pictogram mean? What do you wear when you pour this? "Effective" is the word that gets tested, and the usual gaps are the new hire who started last week and the product that arrived last month.
1910.1200(g)(8) · 5,535 items
Safety data sheets readily accessible
"The employer shall maintain in the workplace copies of the required safety data sheets for each hazardous chemical, and shall ensure that they are readily accessible during each work shift to employees when they are in their work area(s)."
The officer asks a worker, not the office manager, to pull up the sheet for the product in front of them. Electronic access is allowed only "as long as no barriers to immediate employee access" are created. A binder in a locked trailer, a login only supervisors have, or a second shift with no way in are the findings that recur.
1910.1200(f)(6) · 5,895 items
Workplace labeling
"the employer shall ensure that each container of hazardous chemicals in the workplace is labeled, tagged or marked"
Spray bottles, pump cans, day tanks, the coffee can of solvent on the bench. The (f)(8) exemption only covers a portable container filled from a labeled one and "intended only for the immediate use of the employee who performs the transfer." The bottle that outlives the shift, or passes to a coworker, needs a label.
1910.1200(g)(1) · 4,271 items
A safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical
"Employers shall have a safety data sheet in the workplace for each hazardous chemical which they use."
A walk of the storage areas with the chemical list in hand. The can bought at the hardware store last month, the sealant a sub brought onto the job, the sample a sales rep left: a product with no sheet on file is a (g)(1) item, even when the program and the training are in order.
1910.1200(h)(3) · 1,958 items
What the training must cover
"Employee training shall include at least: (i) Methods and observations that may be used to detect the presence or release of a hazardous chemical in the work area"
Whether the training covered all four required topics: how a release is detected, the hazards of the chemicals in the work area, the protective measures and procedures, and the details of the employer's own program, including the label system and how to read a sheet.
One item or several
52% of the 31,287 inspections in the study ended with a single HazCom item and 48% with two or more. What the HazCom items of one inspection covered, most frequent first:
Written program only7,295 inspections
Written program + Information and training + Safety data sheets5,007 inspections
Written program + Information and training3,992 inspections
Information and training only3,878 inspections
Labels only3,322 inspections
Safety data sheets only1,718 inspections
Under workplace labeling, 3,514 items name (f)(6)(ii) and 455 name (f)(6)(i). OSHA's 2026 inspection directive explains the split: (f)(6)(ii) is cited when in-house containers "are not labeled" or a container "is missing information such as the product identifier or hazard description", while (f)(6)(i) is for an employer who copies the shipped label and leaves something out.
Why the written program leads the count
The (e)(1) lead is partly built into OSHA's citation policy. The HazCom inspection directive, CPL 02-02-079, tells compliance officers to group a program violation with the element that failed, because (e)(1) "is the only provision under paragraph (e) which addresses the development, implementation, and maintenance of the written hazard communication program." So when the labels, the sheets or the training fail, (e)(1) tends to come with them.
The same directive takes the paper-only case off the table. Where "labeling, SDS, chemical inventory, and training requirements are met, but there is no written program, a citation for (e)(1) should not be issued, as it is considered a de minimis violation." Both the 2015 edition, in force for most of the period studied, and the edition that replaced it on May 19, 2026 say so. And the chemical inventory sits inside the program itself: (e)(1)(i) requires "a list of the hazardous chemicals known to be present using a product identifier that is referenced on the appropriate safety data sheet."
The data shows the grouping at work. 41% of the 22,101 written-program items share a citation group with a label, safety data sheet or training item. It also shows how often the program stands alone: in 7,010 cases, 32% of them, the program was the only HazCom element cited in the inspection. Under the federal directive, those cases should involve a program that failed by itself, such as a chemical list that is missing or no longer matches what is on the shelves.
Across all HazCom items, 25,794 of 57,508 share their citation group with at least one other HazCom item. A group is one violation with one penalty, under Chapter 6 of OSHA's Field Operations Manual.
OSHA's announced numbers and the database
Each year OSHA releases a preliminary Top 10, usually at the National Safety Council's Safety Congress & Expo, with a violation count for each standard. Those figures cover inspections by federal OSHA only, over a window that has ended anywhere from August 12 to September 30, read from the database on the day the list was prepared. They are the right figures for ranking standards against each other. They undercount HazCom enforcement as a whole, and they are not comparable from one year to the next when the window moves.
OSHA announced HazCom violations each year against counts from the enforcement database
Fiscal year
OSHA announced (rank)
OSHA's window
Database, same window*
Database, full year*
FY2020
3,199 (#2)
October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020
3,150
3,150
FY2021
1,947 (#5)
October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021
1,894
1,894
FY2022
2,424 (#2)
From October 1, 2021, end date not published
n/a
2,598
FY2023
3,213 (#2)
From October 1, 2022, end date not published
n/a
3,192
FY2024
2,888 (#2)
October 1, 2023 to September 5, 2024
2,858
3,108
FY2025
2,546 (#2)
October 1, 2024 to August 12, 2025
2,495
2,977
FY2026
1,961 (#2)
October 1, 2025 to August 31, 2026
1,920
1,975
*Items under 1910.1200 from federal OSHA offices, deleted items excluded, issued in OSHA's window (or in the full fiscal year), as the data stood on October 13, 2026. OSHA's figures: Safety+Health magazine and J. J. Keller reports of each year's presentation (see Sources).
Another way to read FY2026: 12.3% of all inspections that ended with at least one citation included a HazCom item, against 11.3% in FY2025. A share is far less sensitive to the number of inspections than a raw count, so it says more about how often inspectors find HazCom failures once they are on site.
FY2026 opened with a lapse in federal appropriations that ran from October 1 through November 11, 2025, until Public Law 119-37 ended it. It shows in the data. Federal OSHA offices issued 22 HazCom items in October 2025 and 72 in November, against 265 and 245 a year earlier. State Plan offices went on citing: 565 and 402 items, against 541 and 480. The lapse explains part of the drop. From December through August, federal offices still issued 15% fewer HazCom items than in the same months a year earlier, and the only interruption in those months was a partial shutdown of less than four days, from January 31 to February 3, 2026, that included the Department of Labor. Over October 1 to August 31, the federal count went from 2,661 to 1,927, and the State Plan count from 5,777 to 5,734. OSHA's own preliminary HazCom figure went from 2,546, through August 12, 2025, to 1,961, through August 31, 2026.
HazCom applies wherever employees can be exposed to a hazardous chemical, so its citations reach almost every sector. By NAICS sector, manufacturing leads with 26% of the items, and construction employers drew 21%. Construction is cited under 1910.1200 like everyone else: 1926.59 only says the construction rule is "identical" to it.
HazCom citation items by NAICS sector, FY2020 to FY2026, federal OSHA and State Plans.
Category
citation items
Manufacturing
14,894
Construction
12,284
Other Services (except Public Ad…
5,552
Accommodation and Food Services
3,936
Retail Trade
3,353
Public Administration
2,650
Administrative and Support and W…
2,480
Health Care and Social Assistance
2,358
Wholesale Trade
2,105
Transportation and Warehousing
1,703
HazCom citation items by NAICS sector, FY2020 to FY2026, federal OSHA and State Plans.
Industry groups with the most HazCom citation items
Industry group (NAICS)
Items
Inspections
Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors 2381
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services12%
Health Care and Social Assistance19%
Wholesale Trade12%
Transportation and Warehousing11%
Where: state by state
Where you work decides who inspects you. In 21 states and Puerto Rico, a State Plan covers private employers. Most State Plans record HazCom citations under 1910.1200. California cites Title 8, section 5194 (2,381 items) and Washington chapter 296-901 WAC (4,094 items). Oregon uses its own rule for agricultural employers, OAR 437-004-9800 (166 items). All three are counted here with the 1910.1200 items. Minnesota and Tennessee also cite right-to-know rules of their own, Minn. R. 5206 (470 items) and Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-01-09 (1,278 items). Those rules reach beyond HazCom, so their items are reported apart.
States by the site of the inspection. *FY2026 through September 10, 2026. "Share of cited inspections": of the inspections in that state that ended with at least one citation of any standard, the share with a HazCom item (FY2025 and FY2026). Rule numbers by State Plan are mapped on our State Plan HazCom rule map, and each state page links its own penalty schedule.
Small sites and unplanned inspections
Employees at the inspected establishment
71% of the items went to establishments with 25 or fewer employees on site. The size here is the inspected site's headcount. OSHA's size reduction looks at the employer's maximum headcount at all its workplaces nationwide over the previous 12 months, and since July 14, 2025 it reaches 70 percent for an employer with 25 or fewer employees in total. Before that date, the 70 percent band stopped at 10 employees.
1-10 employees26,585 items · 46% · 10% of cited inspections (FY2025 and FY2026)
11-25 employees14,230 items · 25% · 18% of cited inspections (FY2025 and FY2026)
26-100 employees12,063 items · 21% · 14% of cited inspections (FY2025 and FY2026)
101-250 employees2,985 items · 5% · 10% of cited inspections (FY2025 and FY2026)
251-1,000 employees1,287 items · 2% · 7% of cited inspections (FY2025 and FY2026)
1,001+ employees358 items · 1% · 6% of cited inspections (FY2025 and FY2026)
What started the inspection
54% of the items came from unprogrammed inspections: a complaint, a referral, an accident, a follow-up. In FY2025 and FY2026, 87% of the inspections with a HazCom item also drew a citation under another standard. HazCom is often found while the officer is on site for something else, which is why the program matters even where chemicals are not the main hazard.
Planned24,822 items · 43%
Complaint21,001 items · 37%
Referral6,455 items · 11%
Programmed related1,439 items · 3%
Unprogrammed related1,349 items · 2%
Fatality/catastrophe1,068 items · 2%
Accident533 items · 1%
Follow-up394 items · 1%
What else gets cited in a HazCom inspection
In FY2025 and FY2026, of the 9,217 inspections with a HazCom item, 8,022 (87%) also drew a citation under another standard. The ones that show up most often:
Standards most often cited in the same inspection as HazCom
The maximums did not move in 2026. OSHA's memo of May 21, 2026 keeps the 2025 levels, $16,550 for a serious violation and $165,514 for a willful or repeat one, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics could not produce the October 2025 consumer price index the adjustment is tied to. Over the seven years, HazCom items carried $67,762,061 in penalties as issued and $46,645,685 at extraction. Per inspection, the median HazCom penalty was $2,765 as issued and $1,702 after the settlements recorded so far when federal OSHA inspected, and $135 and $105 when a State Plan did. 13,380 inspections (43%) ended with no current HazCom penalty at all.
$1,702
median current HazCom penalty per federal OSHA inspection
$105
the same median in State Plan inspections
43%
of HazCom inspections with no current HazCom penalty
36%
cut from initial penalties on closed cases, FY2020 to FY2024
Why so many items show $0
Grouping. Items grouped into one violation share a single penalty, carried by one of them. 18,046 of the 37,280 items with no current penalty sit in a multi-item group.
Other-than-serious items. Under Chapter 6 of OSHA's Field Operations Manual, an other-than-serious violation whose computed penalty falls below the minimum gets no penalty.
Reductions. The same chapter allows up to 70 percent off for size, counted across all of the employer's workplaces, plus reductions for good faith and history, and a 15 percent quick-fix reduction for hazards corrected during the inspection. Its revision effective July 14, 2025 widened the 70 percent band from 1 to 10 employees to 1 to 25, and doubled the history reduction from 10 to 20 percent, so penalties issued since then are not directly comparable with earlier years.
Settlements. On closed cases from FY2020 to FY2024, current penalties are 36% below the initial amounts.
What the data says about the 13,380 inspections with no current HazCom penalty: in 75% of them every HazCom item was other-than-serious, and 96% carried no HazCom penalty even on the day the citation was issued. Only 545, 4%, were brought to zero after issuance. A HazCom item can also sit in a group led by another standard, which then carries the group's penalty.
HazCom penalties by violation type
Violation type
Items
Median initial*
Median current*
Serious
30,681
$2,500
$1,755
Other-than-serious
25,522
$450
$349
Repeat
1,231
$1,200
$1,200
Willful
67
$24,758
$22,730
Unclassified
7
$6,223
$3,456
*Medians of the items that carry a penalty. Current amounts as of October 13, 2026.
The revised standard took effect on July 19, 2024, and a final rule of January 15, 2026 pushed every compliance date back four months. Paragraph (j) of 1910.1200 now reads:
HCS 2024 compliance dates under 29 CFR 1910.1200(j)
Who
Substances
Mixtures
Manufacturers, importers, distributors
May 19, 2026 (j)(2)(i)
November 19, 2027 (j)(3)(i)
Employers
November 20, 2026 (j)(2)(ii)
May 19, 2028 (j)(3)(ii)
For substances, the employer's date in (j)(2)(ii) covers three things: update "any alternative workplace labeling used under paragraph (f)(6)", update the program, and "provide any additional employee training" for hazards newly identified on the supplier's sheets. Until then, (j)(4) lets manufacturers, distributors and employers follow either the current section or the text in force on July 1, 2023, which is the 2012 standard, or both. The new inspection directive, effective May 19, 2026, tells officers that during the transition "citations should not be issued unless the entity has not complied with either standard," and adds that "in most cases, enforcement for the written program should not be affected by the implementation dates of the revisions to the standard."
What the data can say so far is limited. In the twelve months after July 19, 2024, the paragraph mix looks like the twelve months before it: (e)(1) 3,309 before and 3,395 after, (h)(1) 1,999 before and 2,090 after, (f)(6) 932 before and 917 after, (g)(8) 877 before and 928 after. With either edition allowed until the compliance dates, a shift in citations, if one comes, belongs to FY2027 and later.
The order of the paragraphs above is a sensible order to check your own program in. Each fix below starts with a free tool. Keeping it fixed is the harder part, and it is what HazComFast is built for.
1910.1200(e)(1) · 39% of items
Written hazard communication program
Write the program for this site, with this site's chemical list, and name who keeps the SDSs and who trains.
In HazComFast, the written HazCom program is versioned and includes the multi-employer section of 1910.1200(e)(2) for shared sites, and the chemical inventory keeps the (e)(1)(i) list by jobsite.
Train at initial assignment and again when a new chemical hazard arrives, and keep a record you can show.
In HazComFast, the training center handles assignments, quizzes, certificates and expiration alerts, and SDS read proof shows who read which sheet, when, and in which language.
Match every product on the shelf to a sheet on file, including what the subs bring.
In HazComFast, AI reads your SDS PDFs and fills in hazards, first aid and PPE, revision dates are watched, and the subcontractor portal collects the subs' documents for review.
Source: the U.S. Department of Labor's OSHA enforcement data, violation and inspection tables, read through the Department's open data API on October 13, 2026. The data covers federal OSHA and the State Plans.
Scope: every citation item under 29 CFR 1910.1200 or the sections that apply it to construction (1926.59), shipyards (1915.1200), marine terminals (1917.28) and longshoring (1918.90), plus the State Plan rules that stand in for it: California T8 section 5194, Washington chapter 296-901 WAC and Oregon OAR 437-004-9800 for agricultural employers. The right-to-know rules of Minnesota (Minn. R. 5206) and Tennessee (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-01-09) are counted apart.
Period: items issued from October 1, 2019, the first day of FY2020, to September 10, 2026, the latest issuance date in the data, each counted in the fiscal year of its issuance date. Citations reach the public data some time after they are issued, so FY2026 is short of its last weeks. Where this page compares FY2026 with FY2025, it uses the same months of both years, October 1 to August 31.
Deleted items are left out: OSHA's data flags 1,779 of them in the period.
Jurisdiction comes from the office that ran the inspection: a reporting ID whose third digit is 5 belongs to a State Plan office.
Industry comes from the NAICS code on the inspection record, titled with the Census Bureau's 2022 code list, or the 2017 list where a code was retired. Size is the number of employees at the inspected establishment as recorded by the compliance officer, not the employer's total.
Penalties: "initial" is the amount at issuance, "current" the amount in the data at extraction. Recent cases can still change, so FY2026 penalties are provisional.
No establishment names or addresses appear on this page or in the downloads, and no figure is modeled: each one is a count or a ratio of counts.
Limits
The enforcement database is live. Items get amended, contested, settled and deleted after issuance, and counts for the same period drift by small amounts from one extraction to the next.
State rule numbers were checked against every citation issued in FY2025 and FY2026, under any standard. A HazCom rule number a State Plan used only before FY2025 would be missed.
Paragraph codes are as entered by each office. A few items name a paragraph that cannot be violated on its own, such as (a)(1), the purpose clause. They are kept as entered.
Every item matched its inspection record, so the state, industry, size and inspection-type tables cover all of them.
Counts describe enforcement, not compliance. A state or an industry with more citations may simply be inspected more.
Download the data, cite the study
The files below are what this page is built from. The ZIP holds every HazCom citation item with its inspection attributes, a data dictionary, and the two Python scripts that download the records and rebuild every table. You need a free Department of Labor API key to rerun them.
HazComFast. (2026). OSHA hazard communication citations, FY2020 to FY2026: a study of Department of Labor enforcement data. https://hazcomfast.com/osha-data-research/hazcom-enforcement-study-2020-2026. Data extracted October 13, 2026.
Journalists and researchers: the tables are free to reuse with a link to this page.
FAQ
What is the most cited part of OSHA's hazard communication standard?
The written program requirement, 29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(1). From FY2020 to FY2026 it drew 20,455 citation items, 39% of all HazCom items that name a paragraph, followed by training under (h)(1) with 12,498. Counts are HazComFast's, from Department of Labor enforcement data extracted October 13, 2026, federal OSHA and State Plans together.
How many hazard communication citations does OSHA issue each year?
Between 6,069 (FY2021) and 9,177 (FY2025) citation items a year in our count of the full fiscal years, federal OSHA and State Plans together, in 3,276 to 5,082 inspections a year. FY2026 counted 7,839 items through September 10, 2026. OSHA's own annual figure is smaller because it covers federal inspections only, over a window that ends in August or early September.
What does a HazCom citation cost?
Far less than the $16,550 maximum for a serious violation suggests, and it depends on who inspects. Across FY2020 to FY2026, the median HazCom penalty per federal OSHA inspection was $2,765 as issued and $1,702 after the settlements recorded so far. In State Plan inspections it was $135 and $105. 43% of all HazCom inspections ended with no current HazCom penalty. In 75% of those, every HazCom item was other-than-serious, and 96% had no HazCom penalty even on the day the citation was issued.
Does OSHA cite construction companies under 1926.59?
Almost never. Section 1926.59 only says the construction requirements are identical to 1910.1200, and the data shows 118 items coded 1926.59 in seven fiscal years. Construction employers are cited under 1910.1200: 12,284 items, 21% of the total.
Which industries get the most HazCom citations?
By NAICS sector, Manufacturing leads with 26% of all items, then Construction (21%) and Other Services (except Public Administration) (10%), federal OSHA and State Plans, FY2020 to FY2026. By narrower industry group, the first is Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors (NAICS 2381), ahead of Automotive Repair and Maintenance (8111).
Why don't these numbers match OSHA's Top 10?
They measure different things. OSHA's Top 10 counts violations found in federal OSHA inspections over a window that ends in August or September, read from its database on the day the list is prepared. This study counts every item of the fiscal year, from federal OSHA and the State Plans, as the data stood on October 13, 2026. Over the same window the two agree closely: for FY2025, OSHA announced 2,546 HazCom violations through August 12, 2025, and the database holds 2,495 federal items under 1910.1200 for those dates, 2,977 for the full year.
Is a HazCom citation usually serious?
More often than not. 53% of the HazCom items in the study were classified serious: 66% in federal OSHA inspections, 47% in State Plan inspections. The share also varies by paragraph, and it is lower for the written program than for training.
Can I use this data?
Yes. The tables and the item-level file are free to download and reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). Name HazComFast as the source and link to this page, so readers find the method and the extraction date with the numbers.
General information, not legal advice. A citation is OSHA's allegation until it becomes a final order. This page reports citations as issued and as they stood in the data on the extraction date.
Get the Binder in Order Before the Inspector Arrives. Are You Ready?
OSHA inspections come unannounced, apart from the few exceptions listed in 29 CFR 1903.6. Get the binder in order before the opening conference, not during it.