OSHA Unveils Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards for 2024  

OSHA recently released its eagerly awaited annual list of the Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards for 2024 at this year’s National Safety Council (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo. The OSHA Top 10 List of Most Frequently Cited Standards is highly anticipated because it provides valuable insights for safety professionals, employers, and other organizational stakeholders into OSHA’s enforcement activities and priorities during the previous year, trends in workplace health and safety risks, and clues as to where employers should focus their efforts to improve compliance and better protect workers.

OSHA Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards for 2024

Below is the full ranked list of OSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violations during FY 2024 between October 1, 2023, and September 5, 2024:  

1. Fall Protection—General Requirements (1926.501): 6,307 violations
2. Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,888 violations
3. Ladders (1926.1053): 2,573 violations
4. Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 2,470 violations
5. Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,443 violations
6. Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 2,248 violations
7. Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503): 2,050 violations
8. Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,873 violations
9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,814 violations
10. Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,541 violations

OSHA Top 10 Citations: 2024 Trends & Statistics

The OSHA Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards for 2024 closely resembles last year’s list, featuring the same familiar standard violations that we continue to see on the list year after year. However, there are a couple of interesting shifts in the rankings compared to 2023. Here are a few takeaways and things to consider:

• For the fourteenth consecutive year, Fall Protection continues to hold the #1 spot on OSHA’s Top 10 for 2024.
• OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HazCom) continues to rank #2 on the list for the third consecutive year (2022-2023), after falling to #4 in 2021.
• Somewhat surprisingly, OSHA’s Respiratory Protection Standard has returned to the fourth spot on the Top 10 list after falling to #7 in 2023. The Respiratory Protection Standard had ranked #3 in 2020 and 2022, and #2 in 2021, presumably due to increased Respiratory Protection Standard enforcement emphasis during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Citations for OSHA’s Ladders Standard remain the fourth most commonly cited standard for the second consecutive year, ranking fourth in 2022 to reach #3 in 2023. That rank has steadily risen over the past six years, having ranked seventh and eighth in 2013 through 2016.
• OSHA’s Control of Hazardous Energy Standard (Lockout/Tagout) rose from sixth on the list in 2023 to fifth in 2024, a nearly 24% increase in total number of citations over last year.
• 2024 saw a nearly 10% decrease across the board in terms of the total number of violations of OSHA’s Top 10 most frequently cited standards compared to 2023. It should be noted, however, that 2023 saw a similar increase in total citation numbers compared to 2022.

Read an in-depth analysis of each of OSHA’s Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards for 2023 in our EHS Blog Series.

Improve Workplace Safety by Leveraging the OSHA Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards List 

With OSHA regularly re-organizing inspection and enforcement efforts and civil penalties increasing consistently every year, employers need to stay on top of compliance. The OSHA Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards list is a valuable resource to prioritize your compliance efforts and ensure your safety programs address the most common and serious workplace hazards.  

If you’re responsible for safety management at your company, here are some ways to take advantage of the OSHA Top 10 List: 

• Examine your safety program and identify potential hazards covered under OSHA Standards on the list that may be present in your workplace(s). 
• Evaluate your company’s past and present written safety programs, safety records, and compliance documentation to make sure they comply with OSHA standards. 
• Engage with your workforce to get insights and ideas into how safety can be improved in these most commonly cited areas of compliance, above and beyond your routine worker safety engagement efforts. 
• Have a solid training program in place and ensure all employees are up to date on their training, specifically training required within OSHA Standards including those listed in the OSHA Top 10. 

For a more in-depth look at requirements and compliance strategies for all of OSHA’s Top 10 most frequently cited standards, visit our Blog Series “OSHA’s Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards for 2023” below:

1. Fall Protection—General Requirements
2. Hazard Communication
3. Ladders
4. Respiratory Protection
5. Lockout/Tagout
6. Powered Industrial Trucks
7. Fall Protection—Training Requirements
8. Scaffolding
9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment—Eye and Face Protection
10. Machine Guarding

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