The OSHA PPE Violation Report: FY2025

Federal OSHA cited construction employers 26,530 times in fiscal year 2025, assessing $109,345,581 in penalties across 10,765 inspections. Four of OSHA's national Top 10 most-cited standards are PPE or PPE-training rules. This report breaks down what OSHA actually cited, what it cost, and how those penalties compare to the price of the equipment that prevents them — using only OSHA's published figures.

OSHA's Top 10 most-cited standards, FY2025

OSHA's published national list for fiscal year 2025. PPE and PPE-training standards are flagged.

Source: OSHA Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards (page updated 4/15/26).

Construction: what OSHA cited and what it cost

Every standard Federal OSHA cited most often in construction (NAICS 23) during FY2025, with total penalties and the average penalty per citation. Orange bars are PPE-related standards; the bar length shows citation volume.

Construction totals FY2025: 26,530 citations · 10,765 inspections · $109,345,581 · average $4,122 per citation. Source: OSHA Frequently Cited Standards, NAICS 23, retrieved 2026-07-16.

The economics are absurd — and that's the story

Set the penalty against the price of compliance. An eye-and-face protection citation (1926.102) averaged $3,425 in FY2025. A compliant pair of ANSI Z87.1-rated safety goggles starts near $4, and safety glasses are similar — meaning one citation costs roughly what it would take to outfit hundreds of workers. Head protection (1926.100) averaged $3,006 per citation against hard hats that run $12–$70.

Fall protection is the outlier that proves the rule: at $6,654 average per citation and $44.9M total, it's both the most-cited and the most expensive standard in construction — and also the one where the equipment genuinely costs money. A full-body harness and a self-retracting lifeline are real line items, and retrieval systems run into the thousands. But 6,751 citations says the industry is still betting against the inspector — and the rules on when fall protection is required aren't ambiguous.

The silica standard (1926.1153) is the quiet mover: 632 citations and $1,222,826, averaging $1,935. It's the one on this list most likely to grow, and the respirator selection for silica dust is well-defined — which makes citations here especially avoidable.

General industry: a different violation profile

For contrast, here's Federal OSHA's citation profile in NAICS 31 — the food, beverage, textile, apparel, and leather manufacturing subsector — for the same period. Note this is one manufacturing subsector, not all of manufacturing, so the totals are much smaller than construction's and should not be read as an industry-wide comparison.

NAICS 31 totals FY2025: 1,860 citations · 700 inspections · $10,300,845. Source: OSHA Frequently Cited Standards, NAICS 31, retrieved 2026-07-16.

The pattern flips: where construction's violations are dominated by fall protection and eye protection, this subsector's are dominated by lockout/tagout (411 citations, $2,936,813) and machine guarding. PPE citations here skew toward the general PPE rule (1910.132) and respiratory protection (1910.134) — the standard that also sits at #5 nationally. Hearing (1910.95) barely registers in citations despite noise being ubiquitous; if you want to check your own exposure, our noise exposure calculator runs the OSHA and NIOSH math.

What this means if you run a safety program

Three takeaways the data supports:

1. The cited standards are the predictable ones. Nothing in the Top 10 is exotic. Fall protection, hazard communication, ladders, lockout/tagout, and respiratory protection have been fixtures for years. A program that audits itself against this exact list is auditing against what inspectors actually write up.

2. Eye protection is the cheapest citation to avoid and one of the most common. 1,924 construction citations for a hazard that a $4 pair of glasses addresses. It's a supply-and-enforcement problem, not a cost problem — see our Z87.1 explainer for what actually counts as compliant.

3. Training is cited nearly as often as equipment. Fall protection training (1926.503) drew 2,162 citations — more than eye protection. Buying the gear is not the program; documenting that people were trained on it is half the standard.

Methodology

All figures are Federal OSHA enforcement data for fiscal year 2025 (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025), retrieved 2026-07-16 from OSHA's public tools:

• Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards — the national ranking (page updated 4/15/26).
• Frequently Cited OSHA Standards query tool — per-industry citation counts and penalties (NAICS 23 construction; NAICS 31 manufacturing subsector).
• OSHA Commonly Used Statistics — fatality and inspection figures.

What we calculated: citation counts and penalty totals are OSHA's published figures, reproduced without adjustment. Average penalty per citation is simple division (total penalty ÷ citation count). Percentage shares are that standard's penalties ÷ total construction penalties. No estimates, no modeling, no projections.

Limitations, stated plainly: Federal OSHA only — state-plan states (California, Washington, Michigan and others) enforce separately and are not included, so real national totals are higher. Penalties are as-issued and frequently reduced on settlement, so these are not amounts collected. FY2026 figures do not exist yet; this will be updated when OSHA publishes the next complete fiscal year. Fatality data (5,283 in 2023) is the most recent year on OSHA's statistics page and covers a different period than the citation data.

Cite this report

WC Safety, The OSHA PPE Violation Report: FY2025 (2026). Data: Federal OSHA, Frequently Cited Standards, FY2025. https://wcsafety.com/pages/osha-ppe-violation-report

The underlying data is public OSHA information and free to reuse. If you use these tables or figures, a link back is appreciated — and it lets readers check our arithmetic.

Frequently asked questions

What were OSHA's Top 10 most-cited standards in FY2025?

Fall protection general requirements (1926.501) led again, followed by Hazard Communication (1910.1200), Ladders (1926.1053), Lockout/Tagout (1910.147), Respiratory Protection (1910.134), Scaffolding (1926.451), Fall Protection Training (1926.503), Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178), Eye and Face Protection (1926.102), and Machine Guarding (1910.212).

How many of the Top 10 are PPE-related?

Four of the ten are directly PPE or PPE-training standards: fall protection (#1), respiratory protection (#5), fall protection training (#7), and eye and face protection (#9).

How much did fall protection violations cost in construction?

Federal OSHA assessed $44,917,933 in penalties across 6,751 citations of 1926.501 in construction in FY2025 — about 41% of all construction penalty dollars from a single standard.

What does an eye protection citation actually cost?

In construction, 1,924 citations of 1926.102 carried $6,589,197 in penalties in FY2025 — an average of roughly $3,425 per citation. Compliant ANSI Z87.1 safety glasses start around $4 a pair.

Is this FY2026 data?

No — FY2026 doesn't close until September 30, 2026, so no complete-year figures exist yet. This report uses FY2025 (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025), the most recent complete fiscal year OSHA has published.

Does this include state-plan states?

No. These figures are Federal OSHA enforcement only. States running their own OSHA-approved plans (California, Washington, Michigan and others) report separately, so true national totals are higher.

Why is head protection cited less than eye protection?

Hard hats are near-universally enforced on jobsites and highly visible, so compliance is high. Eye protection is task-dependent — workers lift or skip glasses for a 'quick' cut — which makes it far easier to catch and cite.

What is 1926.95 and why is it barely cited?

1926.95 sets the general criteria for construction PPE. It's cited rarely (54 times in FY2025) because inspectors typically cite the specific standard — eye protection, head protection, fall protection — rather than the umbrella rule.

How many workers die on the job each year?

OSHA reports 5,283 fatal work injuries in 2023, a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers — the most recent year published on OSHA's Commonly Used Statistics page.

How many inspections does OSHA run?

Federal OSHA conducted 34,696 inspections in FY2024 per OSHA's published statistics. In construction alone, FY2025 saw 10,765 inspections producing 26,530 citations.

Can I reuse these charts and figures?

Yes — the underlying data is public OSHA information. We ask that you cite this report and link back; see the citation line below.

Where does this data come from?

OSHA's public Frequently Cited Standards query tool and the Top 10 page, pulled 2026-07-16. Every source URL is listed in the methodology section so you can reproduce every number.

Compiled by Steven Eaton, WC Safety. Published 2026-07-16. WC Safety sells personal protective equipment and participates in the Amazon Associates Program — which is exactly why every number here is sourced to OSHA and reproducible from the links above rather than asserted. This is general information, not legal or compliance advice.