Utah OSHA State Plan (UOSH): what a contractor needs to know

Who the UOSH plan covers

The Utah State Plan applies to private sector 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 at U. S. military bases and facilities, including but not limited to Hill Air Force Base, Tooele Army Depot, and Dugway Proving Ground;
4. Employment at the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserve to the extent that it remains a U.S. DOE facility;
5. The enforcement of the field sanitation standard, 29 CFR 1928.110, and the enforcement of 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 U.S.C. 1802(3) – regardless of the number of workers. This includes workers engaged in hand packing of produce into containers (whether done on the ground, on a moving machine, or in a temporary packing shed); however, Utah 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; and
6. All working conditions of aircraft cabin crewmembers onboard aircraft in operation.

Any hazard, industry, geographical area, operation or facility over which the state is unable to effectively exercise jurisdiction for reasons not related to the required performance or structure of the plan shall be deemed to be an issue not covered by the plan and subject to federal enforcement. The Utah State Plan covers private sector and state and local government workers. UOSH does not cover federal government employers including USPS. Federal OSHA covers the issues not covered by the Utah State Plan with the exception of the enforcement of the field sanitation standard and the temporary labor camp standard for the operations not covered by UOSH.

The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor enforces those standards with respect to the operations not covered by UOSH. 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. The State Plan also investigates private and state and local government workplace retaliation cases under a provision analogous to Section 11(c).

Source: OSHA, Utah State Plan, read October 1, 2026.

Hazard communication in Utah

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 Utah State Plan on January 10, 1973 (38 FR 1179); final approval under section 18(e) came on July 16, 1985 (50 FR 28780), amended on Jan. 17, 1997 ( 62 FR 2560 ), June 9, 2000 (65 FR 36620), June 29, 2006 ( 71 FR 36990 ), and Nov. 15, 2024 (89 FR 90317).
• A summary of the Utah State Plan is codified at 29 CFR 1952.3.
• OSHA lists 6 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 37 standards Utah wrote for itself, 4 of them in construction.
• Hazard communication in Utah runs through Utah Admin. Code R614-1-4.
• In FY2025 (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025), UOSH issued 269 construction citations in 133 inspections, with $334,644 in current penalties (OSHA cited-standards tool).
• Utah's maximum for a serious violation is $16,131, set by Utah Code §34A-6-307.