Guides
OSHA recordkeeping, injury rates and insurance
Which injuries go on the OSHA 300 log, how TRIR and DART are calculated, and how underwriters, contract owners and your experience mod read the numbers.
OSHA recordkeeping is a separate system from workers' compensation. Employers with more than 10 employees, outside the exempt industries, log each work-related injury or illness that meets OSHA's recording criteria on the OSHA 300 Log, summarize the year on Form 300A and post it, and keep the paperwork five years. Insurance enters the picture because the same injuries produce TRIR and DART rates that underwriters, contract owners and prequalification services read next to your experience mod.
Who has to keep OSHA records
Under 29 CFR 1904.1, a company that had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year does not have to keep routine injury and illness records. The test is company-wide peak employment, not the headcount of one location. Under 1904.2, an establishment in an industry listed in Appendix A to Subpart B (certain low-hazard retail, finance, insurance, real estate and service classifications, by NAICS code) is also partially exempt.
Two things the exemptions do not change. First, every employer covered by the OSH Act must report a work-related fatality within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours (29 CFR 1904.39; report by phone to the nearest OSHA area office, to 1-800-321-6742, or online at osha.gov). Second, OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics can write to an exempt employer and require records or a survey response. Employers in states with their own OSHA-approved State Plan follow rules that must be substantially identical on what counts as recordable, and may be stricter on other points, per 1904.37. Check your state agency, and use workers' comp and benefits requirements by state for the state-by-state workers' comp side.
What goes on the log
A case is recordable when it is work-related, is a new case, and meets the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7: death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. A significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional also counts even if none of those happened. Work-relatedness is presumed for events in the work environment unless a 1904.5 exception applies, such as a member of the public who is hurt on your premises or symptoms that result solely from a non-work event.
The line most employers argue about is first aid versus medical treatment. OSHA's first-aid list in 1904.7(b)(5)(ii) is closed, meaning nothing outside it counts as first aid. It includes non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength, tetanus shots, cleaning wounds, bandages and butterfly closures, hot and cold therapy, non-rigid wraps, temporary splints while transporting a victim, and drinking fluids for heat stress. Stitches, staples, prescription-strength medication, physical therapy and chiropractic care are medical treatment, so those cases are recordable.
Some counting rules that trip people up:
- Days away start the day after the injury, and weekends and holidays count if the employee could not have worked them. You may stop counting at 180 days.
- Restricted work means the employee cannot do all routine job functions or cannot work the full shift. A case with a recommended restriction is recorded even if the employee does the job anyway.
- Record each case on the 300 Log and the 301 Incident Report (or an equivalent form, which many employers satisfy with the insurer's first report plus the missing OSHA fields) within 7 calendar days of learning about it.
- A recordable case is not an admission of fault. The note to 29 CFR 1904.0 says recording does not mean the employer was at fault, that a rule was violated, or that the employee is eligible for workers' compensation.
The annual cycle
- Through the year: log recordable cases within 7 days and update the days-away counts.
- After year-end: review the log, total the columns, and complete Form 300A with the annual average number of employees and total hours worked.
- Certify: a company executive signs the 300A after reasonably believing it is correct and complete (an officer, the highest-ranking official at the site, or that person's immediate supervisor; the owner for a sole proprietorship or partnership).
- Post: February 1 through April 30 in a place where employee notices are customarily posted.
- Submit electronically, if covered: 29 CFR 1904.41 requires Form 300A from establishments with 20 to 249 employees in the Appendix A to Subpart E industries and from all establishments with 250 or more employees that must keep records; establishments with 100 or more employees in the Appendix B industries also submit Forms 300 and 301. The deadline is March 2 of the following year (March 2, 2026 for 2025 data, per OSHA's injury reporting page). OSHA makes the submitted establishment data publicly available through its Injury Tracking Application.
- Retain: keep the 300 Log, 300A and 301s five years after the year they cover, and add newly discovered cases to old logs (1904.33).
If an OSHA compliance officer, a state-plan agency or NIOSH asks for the records, you have four business hours to produce them (1904.40). Employees, former employees and their representatives can ask for the 300 Log and get a copy by the end of the next business day, with names left on (1904.35).
Reporting culture and retaliation
A reporting procedure that would deter a reasonable employee from reporting an injury is not allowed under 29 CFR 1904.35(b)(1)(i), and section 11(c) of the OSH Act separately bars retaliation. Rate-based safety bonuses are where employers get into trouble. OSHA's October 11, 2018 memo says incentive programs are permitted if they are not implemented in a way that discourages reporting, and suggests safeguards: reward people for reporting hazards, train all employees on their right to report, and have a way to verify that people are willing to report. Most post-incident drug testing is also permissible when it tests for the cause of an incident rather than to penalize the person who reported an injury.
This ties to insurance. A claim hidden to protect a bonus or a mod is a claim the carrier hears about late; the workers' comp claims process for employers covers the notice steps that late reporting skips.
TRIR and DART: the math
The Bureau of Labor Statistics formula is (number of injuries and illnesses x 200,000) / employee hours worked. The 200,000 stands for 100 full-time employees working 40 hours for 50 weeks. TRIR uses all recordable cases. DART uses only cases with days away, restricted work or job transfer. The OSHA incident rate calculator does both.
Hypothetical example. Say a 90-employee electrical contractor logged 170,000 hours in 2025, with 6 recordable cases, of which 3 involved days away or restricted duty.
| Measure | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| TRIR | 6 x 200,000 / 170,000 | 7.06 |
| DART | 3 x 200,000 / 170,000 | 3.53 |
Those figures are invented to show the arithmetic. BLS reported on January 22, 2026 that the private industry total recordable case rate was 2.3 per 100 full-time-equivalent workers in 2024, down from 2.4 in 2023 (BLS news release USDL-26-0101). That is the all-industry figure. Compare yourself with the published rate for your own NAICS code, because the spread between industries is wide and a small employer's rate swings with one case.
How the numbers show up in insurance
Underwriting submissions. Workers' comp and package applications commonly ask for the last three to five OSHA 300A summaries, any OSHA citations, and your TRIR or DART. The underwriter compares the log to the loss run. A recordable case with no matching claim, or lost-time claims that are not on the log, prompts questions. The two should not match exactly: OSHA counts calendar days, applies different treatment tests and covers only work-related events, while comp claims depend on state law and the waiting period. But large unexplained gaps look like either unreported claims or sloppy records.
The experience mod. Your EMR does not use the OSHA log at all. It is built from claim data insurers report to the rating bureau, and for NCCI states the rating uses policy periods that began 21 to 57 months before the mod's effective date, per NCCI's ABCs of Experience Rating. TRIR is a frequency measure of how many cases occurred, while the mod weighs the dollars of your claims against what a business your size and class would expect. Use The experience modification rate (EMR) explained and the Experience mod (EMR) calculator for the mechanics. A few severe claims can sink a mod while TRIR stays average, and many small first-aid-plus cases can raise TRIR while the mod stays low.
Contract and prequalification. Owners of construction and industrial work, and prequalification services acting for them, often set a TRIR benchmark and a maximum mod (frequently 1.0, though the cutoff varies by owner). Missing the cutoff can keep you off bid lists, which matters more to a general contractor or a manufacturer than any single premium line. See managing subcontractor insurance and certificates for how these requirements flow down.
Loss control and carrier appetite. Carriers' loss control engineers ask for the logs, the written program and what you did after the last serious injury. A documented building a workplace safety program that cuts claims and a working return-to-work program are what move the conversation from rate to terms.
Penalties
OSHA's civil penalty maximums in effect in 2026 are $16,550 per serious, other-than-serious or posting violation, and $16,550 per day for failure to abate. Willful or repeated violations reach up to $165,514 each. The Department of Labor cancelled its 2026 inflation adjustment, so these are the 2025 amounts carried forward (OSHA penalties page; DOL notice, 91 FR 31358, May 27, 2026). Under section 17(g) of the OSH Act, knowingly making a false statement in a required record is a criminal offense, with a fine up to $10,000, up to six months in prison, or both (29 U.S.C. 666(g)).
Key takeaways
- Employers with more than 10 employees outside the exempt industries must log recordable cases on the OSHA 300 Log, certify and post the 300A from February 1 to April 30, and keep records five years; fatalities and severe injuries must be reported to OSHA within 8 or 24 hours regardless of size.
- Recordable means work-related plus a death, days away, restricted work, treatment beyond OSHA's closed first-aid list, loss of consciousness or a significant diagnosed condition. It says nothing about fault or comp eligibility.
- TRIR and DART equal cases x 200,000 divided by hours worked; compare to your own industry's BLS rate, not the 2.3 all-industry private rate for 2024.
- Your experience mod comes from insurer-reported claim data, not OSHA logs, but underwriters and contract owners compare the two and read both.
- Do not tie bonuses to zero reported injuries without safeguards. Discouraging reports risks citations under 29 CFR 1904.35 and makes claims late.