Have you ever wondered what OSHA’s latest enforcement trends are? Or which industries the agency is focusing on now? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you’ll want to check out the OSHA Inspections Tracker map from law firm Fisher Phillips.
The interactive map provides data on:
- the current total number of inspections performed
- which states have seen the most inspections within the past seven days
- total inspections conducted in each state
- total inspections conducted in each industry for each state, and
- the sizes of companies being targeted for inspection.
The tracker collects data from both federal OSHA and state plans.
Fisher Phillips says data from the tracker is currently showing that:
State plans are already being aggressive
It’s no surprise that California is leading with the most total inspections so far this year (more than 1,000), but if you adjust the map for the total number of inspections per employee count, you’ll find that Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan, Oregon and Washington are in the top five.
Those are all state plan states.
The law firm went further, delving into data for the relative size of each state’s employee population to figure out the likelihood for an inspection, adding more state plans to the list with Kentucky, Nevada, Puerto Rico and Nevada.
All of these states have been extremely aggressive with inspections so far this year when factoring in all the data the tracker provides.
Mid-size, large employers have increased chance of inspection
Considering that small businesses with less than 10 employees are the most common type of employer in the U.S. (87% of employers fall into this category), it’s no surprise they make up about 44% of all inspections so far in 2022.
The surprise here is that the data shows the rate of inspections for mid-size and large employers is greater than that for small businesses.
Mid-size employers with 10 to 49 employees make up about 10% of all employers but face 27% of all inspections, which is 177% greater than expected for the early part of 2022.
Employers with 50 to 499 employees, which make up 2.5% of all employers, face 23.2% of all inspections. That’s 828% greater than expected, according to Fisher Phillips.
Huge corporations with more than 499 employees make up 0.1% of all employers in the U.S. but face 5.6% of all OSHA inspections, which amounts to a 5,500% increase above expectations.
This shows that, so far for 2022, OSHA inspectors’ efforts are disproportionately directed at mid-size and larger employers.
Retail employers are being targeted more frequently
The construction and manufacturing industries are getting the most amount of inspections so far this year with 40% of all visits being in construction and 21% in manufacturing.
But retail employers are now the third-most likely to be inspected by federal OSHA, with the tracker showing 6% of all inspections in that industry.
Retail actually ranks higher on the list at this time than waste management, warehousing, food services, agriculture and utilities.
“If you operate a retail operation, the time is now to ensure your workplace safety practices are well-honed and you know what you’d do if an OSHA inspector came knocking,” Fisher Phillips said.
Healthcare industry isn’t as hard hit as expected
Healthcare industry inspections only account for 4.6% of OSHA inspections at this point in 2022.
However, it’s still early in the year, and federal OSHA has already announced an enforcement effort aimed at COVID-19 in healthcare settings, so this is very likely to change as 2022 progresses.
