A Short History of OSHA

Before 1970, there was no national law that required employers to protect workers from hazards. Thousands of people died on the job every year, and most injuries were seen as the price of work. The Occupational Safety and Health Act changed that. Knowing the history helps explain why OSHA’s rules look the way they do, and why the rights workers have today were hard won.

• All Workers
• Students
• Safety Professionals

Before OSHA

• In the 19th and early 20th centuries, factory, mine and railroad work killed and maimed many workers, including children. Fires such as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in a Manhattan garment factory, which killed 146 workers, shocked the public.
• Early reforms came from states, which passed factory inspection laws, and from the creation of workers’ compensation systems in the early 1900s. These paid injured workers but didn’t prevent injuries. See Filing a Workers’ Comp Claim.
• Federal safety rules existed only for some industries, like coal mining, and for some federal contractors. Many workers had no protection.
• By the late 1960s, about 14,000 workers a year were estimated to be dying on the job, and millions were being hurt or made ill. Unions, safety advocates, doctors and journalists pushed for action. Public concern about coal mine disasters and about occupational disease led to hearings in Congress.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

• Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) with bipartisan support, and President Richard Nixon signed it on December 29, 1970.
• The Act’s purpose is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.
• It created three agencies:
  • OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) in the Department of Labor, to set and enforce standards.
  • NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) in the health agencies, to research hazards and recommend standards.
  • OSHRC (Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission), an independent body that decides contested citations. See Contesting Citations.
• The Act includes the General Duty Clause, which requires employers to keep workplaces free of recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm, even when no specific standard exists. See What Is OSHA?.
• It gave workers rights, such as the right to a safe workplace, to request an inspection, to take part in inspections and to be free from retaliation. See Worker Rights and Whistleblower Protection.
• The Act allows states to run their own plans if they are at least as effective as federal OSHA. See State Plans Overview.

The early years (1971 to the 1980s)

• OSHA began operating on April 28, 1971. That date is now observed as Workers’ Memorial Day.
• To get started quickly, OSHA adopted many existing national consensus standards and federal rules as its first standards. Some of these old standards remain in the rules today. See Construction Standards (1926) and General Industry (1910).
• OSHA’s early inspections and the thousands of picky rules led to criticism from business, and OSHA later moved to simplify and focus on serious hazards.
• Major early health standards included asbestos (1972), vinyl chloride, and later lead, benzene and cotton dust (1978), with court fights over how much risk and cost the agency must consider.
• The Hazard Communication standard (1983) gave workers the “right to know” about chemicals. See Hazard Communication.

Standards and enforcement over the decades

• 1989: the lockout/tagout standard for controlling hazardous energy. See Lockout/Tagout.
• 1990s: bloodborne pathogens (1991), confined spaces (1993), and construction rules on fall protection (1994) and excavations (1989). Fall protection and trenching rules replaced older rules that left much to chance. See Fall Protection Basics and Trenching Basics.
• 2001: an ergonomics standard that OSHA issued in 2000 was repealed by Congress under the Congressional Review Act, so ergonomic hazards are handled under the General Duty Clause and guidance. See Musculoskeletal Disorders.
• 2000s to 2010s: hexavalent chromium (2006), cranes and derricks in construction (2010), and updates to hazard communication to match a global system (2012). See Crane Basics.
• 2016: the respirable crystalline silica standard, after years of rulemaking. See Silica and How OSHA Makes New Rules.
• Recent years: new rules on walking-working surfaces and fall protection in general industry (2016), electronic injury reporting, penalty increases tied to inflation, and ongoing work on heat illness prevention, workplace violence and other hazards.
• Enforcement has changed with policy and politics. OSHA now uses emphasis programs and focuses on severe violators. See OSHA Emphasis Programs and Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

What changed: results and challenges

• Since 1970, workplace fatalities have fallen dramatically, by more than half in rate terms, while the number of workers has grown. Injury rates have also dropped a great deal. Many factors helped, including OSHA, better technology, changes in the economy and other laws, but safety experts credit OSHA for a large part of the improvement.
• But thousands of workers still die each year, and many more are hurt or made ill. Construction, transportation, agriculture and other industries still have high rates. See Top 10 Violations.
• OSHA covers most private-sector workers but not everyone: it doesn’t cover self-employed people, many farms with few employees, or state and local government workers in many states. See Who OSHA Doesn’t Cover and OSHA Coverage for Public Employees.
• OSHA has a small number of inspectors relative to the millions of workplaces, so employer responsibility and worker voice matter.
• Penalties were low for decades, and have increased with inflation adjustments. See Citation Types.
• Rulemaking is slow, and many hazards still lack specific standards. See How OSHA Makes New Rules.

Why this history matters to you

• Many OSHA rules were written because people died. The rule for guarding a machine, for locking out equipment or for shoring a trench exists because someone was hurt or killed in just that way.
• Your rights exist because workers organized and fought for them. They remain only as strong as workers’ willingness to use them. See Right to Organize.
• Standards keep evolving. New hazards such as heat, workplace violence, battery fires and new chemicals demand new answers. See Heat Illness.
• Workers’ Memorial Day, April 28, is a day to remember those who were killed or injured at work, and to renew the fight for safe workplaces.

Timeline at a glance

Dates and details come from the OSH Act and OSHA’s own history. See OSHA’s website for more. Numbers such as annual fatalities are estimates and change over time.

Key points to remember

• The OSH Act was signed December 29, 1970, and OSHA began operating April 28, 1971
• It created OSHA, NIOSH and the Review Commission, and the General Duty Clause
• States can run their own plans that are at least as effective as federal OSHA
• Fatality and injury rates have fallen a great deal, but many workers are still hurt and killed
• Worker rights to a safe job, to complain and to take part in inspections come from the Act

Last updated: October 4, 2026