South Carolina OSHA State Plan (SC OSHA): what a contractor needs to know

Who the SC OSHA plan covers

SC OSHA covers private sector and state and local government workplaces in the state with the exception of:

1. Maritime employment, including shipyard employment, marine terminals, and longshoring;
2. Contract workers and contractor-operated facilities engaged in United States Postal Service (USPS) mail operations;
3. Employment on military bases;
4. Private sector employment at Area D of the Savannah River Site (power generation and transmission facilities operated by South Carolina Electric and Gas) and at the Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority;
5. The enforcement of the field sanitation standard (29 CFR 1928.110) and the temporary labor camps standard (29 CFR 1910.142) with respect to any agricultural establishment where workers are engaged in "agricultural employment" within the meaning of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, 29 USC. 1802(3) – regardless of the number of workers – including workers engaged in hand packing of produce into containers, whether done on the ground, on a moving machine, or in a temporary packing shed. South Carolina retains enforcement responsibility over agricultural temporary labor camps for workers engaged in egg, poultry, or red meat production, or the post-harvest processing of agricultural or horticultural commodities;
6. All working conditions of aircraft cabin crewmembers onboard aircraft in operation; and
7. Any hazard, industry, geographical area, operation or facility over which SC OSHA is unable to effectively exercise jurisdiction for reasons not related to the required performance or structure of the plan.

Federal OSHA covers the issues not covered by SC OSHA except for the enforcement of the field sanitation standard and the temporary labor camp standard in the agricultural employment which SC OSHA does not cover, but is carried out by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. In addition, federal OSHA retains enforcement of the anti-retaliation provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, Section 11(c), 29 USC 660(c), with respect to the private sector. SC OSHA also investigates private and state and local government workplace retaliation cases under a provision analogous to Section 11(c).

Source: OSHA, South Carolina State Plan, read October 1, 2026.

Hazard communication in South Carolina

The federal compliance dates and how each State Plan adopted HCS 2024 are compared on HazCom deadlines 2026 and in HCS 2024 deadlines by State Plan. The rule every other State Plan cites is in the State Plan HazCom rule map.

Penalties and appeals

Key facts

• OSHA first approved the South Carolina State Plan on December 6, 1972 (37 FR 25932); final approval under section 18(e) came on December 18, 1987 (52 FR 48103), amended on January 19, 1997 (62 FR 2560) and June 9, 2000 (65 FR 36619).
• A summary of the South Carolina State Plan is codified at 29 CFR 1952.1.
• OSHA lists 7 exceptions to the plan's private-sector coverage, and federal OSHA covers what the plan does not.
• Federal OSHA keeps enforcement of the anti-retaliation provision of section 11(c) of the OSH Act for the private sector, according to OSHA's page for the plan.
• OSHA's page lists 5 standards South Carolina wrote for itself, 2 of them in construction.
• Hazard communication in South Carolina runs through SC Code of Regulations ch. 71, art. 1, subart. 6 (general industry).
• In FY2025 (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025), SC OSHA issued 191 construction citations in 115 inspections, with $231,408 in current penalties (OSHA cited-standards tool).
• South Carolina's maximum for a serious violation is $7,000, set by S.C. Code §41-15-320.