Workplace Safety Guides
Educational resources on OSHA enforcement, wage theft investigations, and workplace safety data.
These guides draw on
- 234,020
- employers inspected
- 391,598
- OSHA inspections
- 885,759
- violations cited
- $1.5B
- in penalties
OSHA Enforcement Data & WHD Compliance Actions, U.S. Department of Labor
How cited violations split by OSHA type
Of 885,759 OSHA violations in this extract, the share by citation type (serious, other-than-serious, repeat, willful). This is a type mix across the full catalog, not an industry ranking and not employer counts.
Understanding OSHA Inspections and Violations
How OSHA inspects workplaces, what violation types mean, and how to look up any employer's safety record.
How Wage Theft Works, What the DOL Data Reveals
What wage theft is, how the Department of Labor investigates it, and which industries have the highest back wage recoveries.
The Most Dangerous Industries in America
Which industries have the highest OSHA violation rates, most severe penalties, and what the data tells us about workplace safety.
Your Rights Under OSHA
What every worker is entitled to, how to report hazards anonymously, whistleblower protections, and how to file a safety complaint.
Industries with the Most OSHA Violations
A data-driven ranking of which industries receive the most citations and penalty dollars, and what systemic factors drive persistent noncompliance.
How to Read an OSHA Inspection Report
Every field decoded, what violation types, penalty amounts, abatement statuses, and inspection triggers mean for evaluating any employer's safety record.
How to File an OSHA Complaint: A Step-by-Step Guide
Exactly how to report workplace hazards to OSHA, online, by phone, or in writing, plus your whistleblower protections and what happens after filing.
Methodology
Guides on PlainWorker are written to explain OSHA enforcement mechanics, worker rights, and the underlying structure of the Department of Labor's public data. Every factual claim is traceable either to the federal regulatory text (e.g., the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Fair Labor Standards Act) or to specific enforcement statistics reproducible from the monthly DOL data export.
When a guide references aggregate figures (e.g., "construction has the highest violation rate"), those figures are drawn directly from the PlainWorker dataset and link through to the state or industry page where the number is reproducible. Where a guide describes a legal process (e.g., filing an anonymous OSHA complaint), the procedural steps reflect current OSHA regional office practice at the time of publication, and we update guides when the underlying procedure changes. Guides are not legal advice; workers with specific cases should consult a licensed attorney.
Sources: OSHA Enforcement Data, U.S. Department of Labor (data.dol.gov) and Wage & Hour Division Compliance Actions.
Download the OSHA/WHD enforcement extract cited on this page: osha-whd-enforcement-statistics.csv (DOL public records · CC BY 4.0).
Every figure on PlainWorker is rendered directly from official U.S. Department of Labor OSHA and Wage & Hour Division enforcement records, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.