How to Check Any Employer's Safety Record Before You Accept a Job

Before you accept a job, you can look up exactly how many times OSHA has cited that employer for safety violations — and how severe they were. All OSHA enforcement data is public record. OSHARecord makes it searchable across 14,681 companies with 56,028 total violations. Here is how to use this data to make informed employment decisions.

Step 1: Search the Company

Start on OSHARecord's search page and type the company name. The search covers all 14,681 companies in the database. Large companies may appear under their legal entity name rather than their consumer brand — for example, a franchise restaurant may be listed under the franchisee's corporate name rather than the chain name. Try variations if your first search does not return results.

If the company does not appear in OSHARecord, it may mean the company has never been inspected by OSHA (common for small, low-risk businesses), or it may operate under a different legal name. You can also search by state or industry to find companies in a specific sector and location.

Step 2: Check the Safety Score

Every company in OSHARecord receives a Safety Score from 0 to 100, with a letter grade from A to F. The score is based on four weighted factors:

• Violation rate vs. industry average (40%): How does this company's violation count per inspection compare to others in the same industry?
• Serious violations ratio (combined in the 40% factor): What proportion of violations are classified as Serious?
• Willful and Repeat violations (25%): Does the company have Willful or Repeat violations — the most egregious types?
• Penalty amount vs. industry average (20%): How do this company's fines compare to peers?
• Inspection history (15%): How frequently has OSHA inspected this company, and how recently?

A grade of A or B means the company's safety record is better than its industry average. C is average. D and F indicate the company has more violations, more severe violations, or both compared to its peers. Currently, OSHARecord tracks the grade distribution across all companies in the database.

Step 3: Read the Violation History

Every company page on OSHARecord shows the complete violation timeline with details on each citation: the violation type, the OSHA standard violated, a description of the hazard, the penalty amount, and the inspection date. Look for these patterns:

• Violation trend: Are violations increasing or decreasing over time? A declining trend suggests the company is improving. An increasing trend is a warning sign.
• Violation severity: A company with 50 Other-than-Serious violations is very different from one with 50 Serious violations. Pay attention to the mix.
• Willful or Repeat violations: Even one Willful violation is a major red flag. Repeat violations mean the company was told about the hazard and still did not fix it.
• Penalty amounts: Higher-than-normal penalties mean OSHA considered the violations especially severe or the company had aggravating factors such as a history of prior violations.
• Recent activity: Focus on the past five years. Violations from fifteen years ago may reflect a different management team and safety culture.

Step 4: Compare to Industry Peers

Raw violation counts can be misleading without context. A construction company with 20 violations may actually be safer than average for its industry, while a retail company with 10 violations may be one of the worst. OSHARecord's Safety Score accounts for this by benchmarking companies against their industry sector. You can also browse industries ranked by violation rate to understand baseline risk levels, and use the company comparison tool to see how two companies stack up side by side.

Step 5: Check the State Context

OSHA enforcement varies significantly by state. Twenty-eight states operate their own OSHA-approved state plans with their own inspectors and, in some cases, different standards. Some states inspect workplaces more aggressively than others, which means a company in a state with active enforcement may have more violations on record simply because it was inspected more often. Browse state pages on OSHARecord to see violation patterns by geography.

What the Data Cannot Tell You

OSHA data is powerful but has limitations you should understand:

• Not every hazard gets inspected. OSHA has roughly 1,850 inspectors for 8 million worksites. Many employers are never inspected.
• Small companies may have no record. A company with zero violations in OSHARecord may simply have never been inspected, not necessarily be safe.
• Data is quarterly. OSHA publishes enforcement data quarterly. Very recent inspections may not yet appear.
• Culture is not captured. A company can have a bad safety culture without OSHA violations — and can have violations while actively improving.

Use OSHA data as one input alongside other research: ask current and former employees about safety practices, check TRIR and DART rates if available, review the company's safety certifications, and look for VPP participation.

Frequently Asked Questions