Primary sources first
Every compliance requirement described on this site is checked against the actual OSHA standard it refers to — 29 CFR Part 1910 for general industry, Part 1926 for construction, Part 1928 for agriculture, and the relevant sections of other parts as applicable. Where a guide states a specific requirement, it should be traceable to a specific CFR citation, which we include directly in the text (for example, "29 CFR 1910.147(c)(6)").
Secondary sources — OSHA's own guidance documents, enforcement summaries, and published interpretation letters — are used to explain how a standard is applied in practice, but the standard itself is always the authoritative reference. When our explanation and the actual regulatory text seem to diverge, the regulatory text wins, and that's a signal we need to fix the page.
What this means for you: If you're relying on something specific enough to affect a compliance decision, cross-check it against the CFR section cited or the source linked. Compliance content on the internet — including ours — should be a starting point for understanding a requirement, not the final word on it.
Numbers and statistics
Penalty amounts, citation counts, and inspection statistics come from OSHA's published enforcement data — the annual Enforcement Summary reports and the Top 10 Most Cited Standards list, both published at osha.gov. These figures are dated and change: penalty maximums adjust annually for inflation, and citation rankings shift year to year. Every page citing a specific figure notes the fiscal year or date it applies to, and the "Last Updated" date at the top of each guide reflects when it was last checked against current figures.
What "Last Updated" means
The date shown at the top of each guide is the date the page's content was last reviewed for accuracy — not necessarily the date it was first published. A guide can carry a recent "Last Updated" date even if most of its text hasn't changed, if the underlying requirements were re-verified and found to still be correct.
How corrections work
If a reader identifies an error — an outdated penalty figure, a misstated requirement, a broken link to a source — we treat that as a priority fix, not routine maintenance. This site does not currently have a public contact channel; corrections are handled through periodic internal review of source material rather than reader submission.
What we don't publish
This site doesn't publish content that requires case-specific legal judgment we're not positioned to make. That includes:
- Opinions on whether a specific, described workplace condition constitutes a violation
- Predictions about how a specific OSHA area office or inspector will interpret an ambiguous standard
- Guidance that would require knowing facts specific to one reader's situation that we have no way to verify
Where a topic genuinely requires that kind of judgment, the relevant guide says so directly and points toward a qualified safety consultant or attorney rather than guessing.
Independence
This site is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor or OSHA. It displays Google AdSense advertising. No compliance company, training provider, or safety equipment supplier pays to appear in or be recommended by any guide. If that changes for any specific piece of content in the future, it will be disclosed on that page.
Full transparency about process
For a more complete explanation of who this site is for and how it's built, see the About page.