Beyond the Rankings: What OSHA’s Top 10 Says About Workplace Safety

OSHA’s fiscal 2026 list highlights familiar hazards, but the compliance problems behind the numbers offer employers a roadmap for finding weaknesses in their own safety programs.

• By David Kopf
• Oct 15, 2026

When OSHA unveiled its preliminary fiscal year 2026 list of the 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards at the NSC Safety Congress & Expo in September, there were few surprises at the top.

Fall Protection — General Requirements remained No. 1 for the 16th consecutive year, with 4,041 violations. Hazard Communication ranked second with 1,961 violations, followed by Control of Hazardous Energy, commonly known as lockout/tagout, with 1,863.

But the value of OSHA’s Top 10 extends beyond the rankings.

During the presentation, Prent Cline, acting deputy director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, provided a closer look at the conditions inspectors are encountering in workplaces and why some of the same deficiencies continue to appear.

Many of the employers OSHA inspects are small and midsize organizations, Cline noted, and some simply do not fully understand the requirements. Even experienced safety professionals, however, can face complicated compliance questions.

And while the mix of industries OSHA inspects changes, the underlying problems remain remarkably persistent.

“These are all issues that seem to crop up again and again,” Cline said.

Here is what OSHA saw behind the fiscal 2026 Top 10.

10. Machine Guarding — 1910.212: 1,072 violations

Machine guarding rounded out the preliminary list with 1,072 violations, reinforcing the continuing importance of protecting employees from hazardous machine motion and points of operation.

9. Eye and Face Protection — 1926.102: 1,120 violations

OSHA found several recurring problems involving construction eye and face protection. Employees sometimes had no protection at all, while others lacked side protection or were using eyewear that did not meet applicable specifications.

Prescription eyewear can create another challenge. Workers may wear their normal glasses rather than safety eyewear designed to provide the required protection.

Cline said OSHA saw violations among framing, roofing, siding and masonry contractors, particularly in residential construction and renovation.

Comfort can also contribute to noncompliance. Workers may resist wearing protection because it fogs, becomes hot or is uncomfortable.

That makes eye protection a hazard that can be easy to miss during periodic audits because compliance can change from worker to worker and job to job.

8. Fall Protection; Training Requirements — 1926.503: 1,273 violations

Training problems ranged from employees receiving no fall protection training to incomplete training, missing certifications or training that was not conducted by a competent person.

New employees present a particular vulnerability if they begin working before completing required training.

Cline also pointed to the structure of the construction industry itself. Contractors and subcontractors frequently rotate onto and off jobsites, making it essential for those managing safety to know who is working on the site and whether those workers have been properly trained.

“The fragmented structure of construction really lends itself” to some of these problems, Cline said.

A functioning safety management system should help employers identify those gaps before work begins.

7. Powered Industrial Trucks — 1910.178: 1,379 violations

Powered industrial truck violations were especially common in warehousing, machine shops and construction operations using rough-terrain forklifts.

OSHA encountered operators who had not been properly trained or evaluated and employers that failed to provide refresher training when circumstances indicated it was needed.

Cline described a scenario familiar to many workplaces: A new employee sees a forklift, wants to help and begins operating it before scheduled training occurs.

Equipment condition presents another concern. OSHA inspectors find trucks with defective brakes, warning devices or backup alarms, potentially indicating that required daily or shift inspections are not taking place.

Those deficiencies, Cline said, often point to longer-term weaknesses that an employer’s safety management program has failed to detect.

6. Respiratory Protection — 1910.134: 1,608 violations

Respiratory protection generated 1,608 violations, with missing medical evaluations among the common deficiencies.

Fit testing and training were other problem areas.

Cline emphasized that providing a respirator does not by itself solve a respiratory hazard. Wearing a respirator places a physiological burden on the user, which is one reason medical evaluations are required.

OSHA also encounters workers using the wrong protection for the hazard, including cartridges that are not appropriate for the chemicals involved.

Masonry contractors, auto body shops and machine shops were among the industries where OSHA encountered respiratory protection violations.

For employers dealing with respiratory hazards and uncertain about the appropriate protection, Cline recommended seeking assistance from a qualified industrial hygienist who can characterize the exposure and provide professional guidance.

5. Ladders — 1926.1053: 1,659 violations

Ladder violations often involve basic practices that can nevertheless result in serious consequences.

OSHA found ladders that failed to extend the required three feet above landing surfaces, defective ladders, employees standing on top steps and ladders being used for purposes for which they were not designed.

One classic example is leaning a stepladder against a surface and using it like a straight ladder. Cline noted that OSHA has investigated fatalities involving that practice because stepladders are not designed to be used in that configuration and can slip from beneath workers.

Roofing, framing and siding contractors were among the industries where OSHA encountered violations, along with residential and commercial construction.

4. Scaffolding — 1926.451: 1,725 violations

Missing or inadequate guardrails, platforms that were not fully decked and improper foundations were among the scaffolding deficiencies OSHA found.

Sometimes the underlying cause begins before the scaffold is even assembled. Cline said employers may underestimate how much scaffolding material a job will require and arrive without enough equipment to fully deck the structure.

OSHA saw scaffolding problems among masonry, framing, siding and roofing contractors and in both residential and commercial construction.

These are conditions, Cline suggested, that a competent person conducting regular observations should be able to identify.

3. Control of Hazardous Energy — 1910.147: 1,863 violations

Lockout/tagout illustrates the difference between having a safety procedure and actually maintaining it.

Some employers had no procedure. Others had procedures sitting in a safety manual but had gradually moved away from following them.

Periodic inspections were another problem. Cline emphasized the need to review procedures to ensure they remain accurate, sufficiently specific and reflective of the equipment employees are actually servicing.

Training can also become complicated when multiple workers participate in maintenance.

Cline noted that employers sometimes treat one maintenance employee as responsible for lockout/tagout while machine operators or other employees assist with the work. Depending on their involvement, those employees may themselves be performing work requiring the authorized-employee level of training and protection.

2. Hazard Communication — 1910.1200: 1,961 violations

Hazard Communication produced nearly 2,000 violations.

Some employers lacked a program entirely. Others provided inadequate employee training or failed to properly manage safety data sheets.

Cline said roofing contractors were among the employers where OSHA encountered problems, including contractors bringing chemicals or substances onto jobsites without obtaining the associated SDSs.

Secondary containers can create additional compliance issues.

The broader lesson is that hazard communication needs to be embedded into normal operations. When materials or substances are purchased, obtaining the SDS and ensuring workers understand the hazards should be part of the process rather than a separate compliance exercise.

Cline also recommended reinforcing hazard communication training rather than treating it as a one-time event.

1. Fall Protection — 1926.501: 4,041 violations

Once again, fall protection stood apart from the rest of the Top 10. Its 4,041 violations were more than twice the number recorded for Hazard Communication at No. 2.

OSHA continues to encounter employees working without fall protection in residential construction, along with unprotected sides, edges and holes.

The standard and the hazard are hardly new, Cline emphasized. Employers have had years to understand the requirements.

“The bottom line is, as an employer, you have to have zero tolerance for fall protection,” Cline said.

That does not mean managing fall hazards — or any of the hazards represented by the Top 10 — is always simple. Jobsites change, employees come and go, equipment deteriorates and production demands can affect decisions in the field.

Those realities also help explain why the Top 10 can be useful beyond simply identifying OSHA’s enforcement activity.

The recurring deficiencies Cline described — missed training, procedures that exist on paper but are not followed, inadequate inspections, defective equipment and hazards that go uncorrected — can serve as prompts for employers to examine their own operations.

Ultimately, Cline said, preventing those problems requires continuous attention rather than periodic compliance exercises.

“It takes vigilance,” he said, along with people on worksites willing to identify hazards and get them corrected “every day, every shift.”

Put OSHA’s Top 10 to Work

Want to use OSHA’s Top 10 to identify potential gaps in your own safety program?

Watch the archived Occupational Health & Safety webinar “Using OSHA’s Top 10 as a Self-Assessment Tool.” The program examines how safety professionals can use OSHA’s most frequently cited standards as a practical starting point for reviewing workplace hazards, evaluating compliance efforts and identifying areas for improvement.

This article originally appeared in the October 2026 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.