The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) presented its annual ranking of the ten most frequently cited violations found during inspections in fiscal year 2026 at the NSC Safety Congress & Expo. The figures are based on inspections carried out throughout the year across the United States. Each line shows the regulation number of the standard that was violated, followed by how many times it was cited in 2026.
The full top 10
- Fall Protection – General Requirements (1926.501): 4,041 violations
- Hazard Communication (1926.1200): 1,961 violations
- Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 1,863 violations
- Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,725 violations
- Ladders (1926.1053): 1,659 violations
- Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 1,608 violations
- Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 1,379 violations
- Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503): 1,273 violations
- Personal Protective Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,120 violations
- Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,072 violations
Falls remain the biggest problem, though numbers are falling
For the sixteenth consecutive year, fall protection tops the list. Notably, the number of violations fell across all ten categories compared to last year, even though the relative ranking stayed largely the same: the same risk areas — falls, hazard recognition and machine guarding — recur year after year, even as absolute numbers decline. NSC CEO Lorraine Martin emphasized that “every citation represents an opportunity to identify gaps and strengthen safety practices before a worker is injured,” urging employers to use the list to benchmark their own workplaces against the most common shortcomings.
An internationally recognizable pattern
Although the figures are specific to the US, the ranking is internationally recognizable to EHS professionals: fall, machine and hazard-recognition risks remain the most persistent problem areas in almost any sector involving physical work, from construction to manufacturing. The recurring presence of scaffolding, ladders and forklifts on the list underlines that basic workplace layout and maintenance still demand structural attention, even in a heavily regulated market like the US. For regulators and safety teams outside the US, the list offers a useful benchmark against which to weigh their own inspection priorities.
Source: OSHA Reveals Top 10 Workplace Safety Violations for 2026, 17 September 2026
