OSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violations for 2025
Every fall, The National Safety Council (NSC) announces OSHA’s Top 10 Most Commonly Cited Violations for the prior year. This year’s updated list was published on September 17, 2025 at the National Safety Council Safety Congress & Expo, the world’s largest annual gathering of safety professionals.
OSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violations are based on data through August 12, 2025. OSHA typically provides a more in-depth look at the data in December.
Fall Protection remains at the top of the list for the 15th year in a row!
The Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for FY 2025 are:
- Fall Protection – General Requirements (1926.501): 5,914 violations
- Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,546
- Ladders (1926.1053): 2,405
- Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,177
- Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 1,953
- Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503): 1,907
- Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,905
- Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 1,826
- Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,665
- Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,239
OSHA’s Top 10 Violations Year Over Year
This chart was created by Compliance Consultants, Inc. and is helpful in showing the status change of OSHA’s Top 10 Violations in 2025 from the previous year.
The yellow horizontal arrows indicate that the status of that specific violation has not changed from the previous year. So, Fall Protection, Hazard Communication and Ladder safety have all remained in the same top three spots in 2025 from the previous year.
The red downward arrows and the green upward arrows indicate the change in ranking for that violation respectively.
CHART GOES HERE!
More Progress Must Be Made Toward Safety
“While progress has been made in many workplaces, the consistency in citation rankings year after year signals there is more work ahead,” said Lorraine Martin, NSC CEO. “The safety community must intensify our efforts to better protect workers and save lives. We can do this through robust training, updated metrics, high-hazard identification and control implementation, coupled with employee engagement and leadership accountability.”
Have a Safety Plan and Don’t Delay
Compliance Consultants, Inc. recommends that you use this OSHA Top 10 Safety Violations list to guide you in your decisions regarding safety.
If you know your employees are exposed to these workplace hazards and your programs/processes are not current, please contact us so we can help you develop a safety plan.
Whether it’s a Health & Safety Program, Safety Inspections, and/or Training, we can help to ensure you avoid costly fines and worksite downtime.
