Top 10 OSHA Violations of 2025

Roofing workers with no PPE safety equipment

The preliminary list of 10 Top OSHA violations of 2025 continues last year’s trend of fewer citations than the previous year. This year’s top 10 list accounts for 23,537 violations, compared to 26,207 in 2024 and 28,912 in 2023. That’s a 19 percent decline in three years.

The top 10 OSHA citation categories are the same as 2024 and 2023, with some movement within the list again this year. The only category that shows a citation increase this year is scaffolding, which grew by 32. Roofing operations led the citation counts in 6 of the 10 categories.

The 10 most-cited OSHA safety standards of fiscal year 2025 are:

  1. Fall Protection – General Requirements (Standard 1926.501): 5,914 violations (-393 vs. 2024). The roofing industry led this category.
  2. Hazard Communication (Standard 1910.1200):  2,546 violations (342 fewer than 2024). Roofers again led this category.
  3. Ladders (Standard 1926.1053): 2,405 violations (-168 vs. 2024), with roofing as the leading industry.
  4. Lockout/Tagout (Standard 1910.147): 2,177 violations (256 fewer than 2024).
  5. Respiratory Protection (Standard 1910.134): 1,953 violations (-517 vs. 2024). Failure to provide medical evaluation for workers using respiratory protection was the top cause.
  6. Fall Protection – Training Requirements (Standard 1926.503): 1,907 violations (143 fewer than 2024). Roofing was the leading industry for violations.
  7. Scaffolding (Standard 1926.451): 1,905 violations (32 more than 2024). Masonry, roofing, framing and siding operations received the most citations.
  8. Powered Industrial Trucks (Standard 1910.178): 1,826 violations (-422 vs. 2024).
  9. Eye and Face Protection (Standard 1926.102): 1,665 violations (149 fewer than 2024). The roofing industry also led violations of this standard.
  10. Machine Guarding (Standard 1910.212): 1,239 violations (-302 vs. 2024).

For comparison, the 2024 Top 10 were:

  1. Fall Protection – General Requirements: 6,307 violations (-964 vs. 2023)
  2. Hazard Communication: 2,888 (-325 vs. 2023)
  3. Ladders: 2,573 (-430 vs. 2023)
  4. Respiratory Protection: 2,470 (-11 vs. 2023)
  5. Lockout/Tagout: 2,443 (-111 vs. 2023)
  6. Powered Industrial Trucks: 2,248 (-306 vs. 2023)
  7. Fall Protection – Training Requirements: 2,050 (-62 vs. 2023)
  8. Scaffolding: 1,873 (-986 vs. 2023)
  9. Eye and Face Protection: 1,814 (-260 vs. 2023)
  10. Machine Guarding: 1,541 (-103)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration unveils its preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited standards at the NSC’s annual Safety Congress and Expo.

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