Reporting a workplace injury: what employers must do

When an employee is hurt at work, three separate clocks start: OSHA's (for deaths, hospitalizations, amputations and eye losses), your workers' compensation carrier's and state agency's (for the claim itself), and OSHA's recordkeeping clock (for the injury log). The federal OSHA deadlines are the same everywhere. The workers' comp reporting deadlines are set by each state and differ, so the first call after getting the person care is usually to your carrier or third-party administrator.

Clock one: reporting to OSHA

Under 29 CFR 1904.39, every covered employer, including those exempt from routine injury recordkeeping, must report:

• A work-related fatality within 8 hours of learning of it. A death that occurs within 30 days of the incident is still reportable.
• An in-patient hospitalization, an amputation or the loss of an eye within 24 hours of learning of it. The window runs from when you learn the injury meets the definition, not from the accident itself.

OSHA's reporting page lists three ways to report: call the nearest OSHA area office, call the 24-hour hotline at 1-800-321-6742, or file the online Serious Event Reporting form. Voicemail, fax and email are not accepted. Have the business name, the names of affected employees, the location and time, a short description and a contact with a phone number ready.

Some events fall outside the rule. OSHA says you need not report a motor vehicle crash on a public road (unless it is in a construction work zone), an incident on a public or commercial airplane or bus, or a hospital stay for diagnostic testing or observation only. A trip to the emergency room that ends in discharge is not an in-patient hospitalization.

Failing to report is itself a citation. For 2026, OSHA's maximums are unchanged from 2025 because the Department of Labor cancelled the 2026 inflation adjustment (91 FR 31358, May 27, 2026): $16,550 per serious or other-than-serious violation and up to $165,514 for a willful or repeated one (OSHA penalties).

Clock two: the workers' comp claim

OSHA reporting does not start a comp claim, and a comp claim does not satisfy OSHA. The comp side has three steps, and every state sets its own deadlines for each:

1. Employee notice. The injured worker must tell the employer within a statutory window. Florida allows 30 days from the injury or its manifestation (Fla. Stat. 440.185(1)); other states allow more or less.
2. Employer report to the carrier. Florida requires the employer to report to its carrier within 7 days of actual knowledge (Fla. Stat. 440.185(2)). California requires the employer to give the employee a claim form (DWC-1) within one working day of learning of the injury (Labor Code 5401). Both are examples, not national rules.
3. First report to the state agency. Many states also want an employer's first report of injury filed with the workers' comp board, often by the carrier on your behalf. The trigger is usually lost time beyond a few days, medical treatment beyond first aid, or any claim at all, depending on the state.

Because the numbers vary, use the workers' comp and benefits requirements by state and the guide for each state where you have employees, such as California or Florida, and ask your carrier for its reporting instructions. Employers with workers in several states need a procedure that sends each injury to the right state's rules (employees in several states: other-states coverage and multistate workers' comp).

Clock three: the OSHA log

If your business is not in a partially exempt industry and had more than 10 employees at any time in the prior year, you must record each new work-related injury that meets the OSHA recordable injury test (death, days away, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness) on the OSHA Form 300 log and complete a Form 301 incident report. Under 29 CFR 1904.29 you have 7 calendar days from learning of the case to enter it. Records are kept five years. The Form 300A summary is posted from February 1 to April 30.

Large establishments also submit data electronically. Under 29 CFR 1904.41, establishments with 20 to 249 employees in the listed industries submit Form 300A, and those with 100 or more employees in the higher-hazard list submit Forms 300 and 301, due March 2 of the following year (OSHA ITA). The log feeds your incidence rate; see OSHA recordkeeping, injury rates and insurance and the OSHA incident rate calculator.

A comp claim and a recordable case are not the same thing. A comp claim for a first-aid-only incident is not recordable, while an injury treated with prescription medication can be recordable. An injury can also be recordable even if the comp claim is later denied.

A reporting checklist for supervisors

1. Get the employee medical care first. Call 911 for anything serious.
2. Within the hour, decide whether it could be a fatality, hospitalization, amputation or eye loss. If so, a manager calls OSHA without waiting for the final medical picture.
3. Take statements and photographs, and preserve equipment. Do not discipline anyone before you understand what happened; 29 CFR 1904.35 protects workers from retaliation for reporting.
4. Report to the carrier the same day, not at the end of the statutory window. Late reporting inflates claim costs and can create notice of claim and late notice: why timing matters problems.
5. Give the employee any state-required claim form or pamphlet.
6. Log the case within 7 days if it is recordable, and calendar the state agency filing.
7. Contact the employee, and start the conversation about modified duty (return-to-work programs: how to build one).

Hypothetical example

Say a 40-person fabrication shop in a state that gives employers 7 days to report. A press operator loses a fingertip at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday. The supervisor gets him to the hospital, and by 5:00 p.m. the plant manager has called OSHA because an amputation is reportable within 24 hours. The same evening the office manager phones the carrier's first-notice line. The following day she enters the case on the Form 300 and prepares the Form 301. The three duties run on different deadlines, but acting on the shortest one first meant none were missed.

Why timing matters to your premium

A prompt report lets the carrier's nurse and adjuster steer early treatment, which is the largest lever on a claim's cost. Claims reported late tend to develop into larger, more litigated claims, and each claim counts in your experience modification rate. Some states also fine employers that report late. See the workers' comp claims process for employers for what the carrier does next.

Key takeaways

• OSHA's rule is national: report deaths within 8 hours and hospitalizations, amputations and eye losses within 24 hours (29 CFR 1904.39).
• Workers' comp reporting deadlines are state law, so check each state where you have employees and your carrier's instructions.
• Recording on Forms 300 and 301 is a separate duty with its own 7-day clock; comp claims and recordable cases overlap but are not identical.
• Report to your carrier the day it happens, even if the state gives you a week.
• Never punish a worker for reporting an injury; OSHA treats it as retaliation.