OSHA 300 log posting is one of the most specific — and most commonly misunderstood — recordkeeping obligations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Every year, between February 1 and April 30, covered employers must post a summary of the previous year's work-related injuries and illnesses in a visible workplace location. This isn't optional, and it isn't a formality: the posting requirement exists so that workers can review their employer's safety record and make informed decisions about their work environment. Failing to comply can expose your organization to serious financial penalties.

The OSHA 300 Log itself is a running record of every work-related injury or illness that meets OSHA's recordability criteria. But the log is not what gets posted. Instead, employers must complete and display the OSHA 300A Summary form, which aggregates the total counts of injuries, illnesses, days away from work, and other outcomes for the entire calendar year. The distinction between the log and the summary is something inspectors frequently check, so understanding both documents is essential for any safety professional or HR manager.

Covered establishments are defined by OSHA as locations where work is performed, and most private-sector employers with 10 or more employees are required to maintain the 300 Log year-round and post the 300A summary each February. Certain low-hazard industries are partially exempt from maintaining the log, but the list of exempt industries has changed over time and should be verified against the current OSHA Standard Industrial Classification codes before assuming your business qualifies. For those studying for their OSHA certification, understanding the nuances of osha 300 log posting rules is a key exam topic.

The 300A Summary must be signed by a company executive — specifically a highest-ranking company official, owner, corporate officer, or their representative — before it is posted. This signature requirement underscores that workplace safety recordkeeping is considered a senior leadership responsibility, not just an administrative task. The signing official is legally certifying that the information is true and complete to the best of their knowledge, which creates personal accountability at the executive level.

Where you post the 300A matters as much as when you post it. OSHA requires the summary to be placed in a conspicuous location where notices to employees are customarily posted. If your workers punch a time clock, that wall is usually appropriate. If your workforce is distributed across multiple worksites or shifts, you may need multiple posting locations or alternative methods of ensuring all employees have access. For remote workers, OSHA has provided guidance that electronic posting may satisfy the requirement in some circumstances, but the default rule is physical, in-person access.

The posting period runs precisely from February 1 through April 30 — three full months. You cannot post early in January and take it down February 1, nor can you post it February 1 and remove it before April 30 ends. Many employers make the mistake of taking the summary down at the end of February, assuming one month is sufficient. OSHA inspectors know this is a common error and may specifically check the posting dates. A good practice is to mark your compliance calendar with both the start and end dates as firm, unmissable deadlines.

Beyond the annual posting obligation, employers must also retain OSHA 300 Logs and 300A Summaries for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover. During that retention period, the records must be available for inspection by OSHA compliance officers, employee representatives, and current or former employees who request them. Understanding how the posting requirement connects to the broader recordkeeping system — the 300 Log, the 300A Summary, and the 301 Incident Report — gives you a complete picture of your obligations under 29 CFR Part 1904.

Understanding the exact posting window for the OSHA 300A Summary is non-negotiable for compliance. The regulation at 29 CFR 1904.32(b)(6) is explicit: the summary must be posted no later than February 1 of the year following the year covered by the form and must remain posted until April 30 of that same year.

For example, the 300A Summary covering calendar year 2025 must be posted by February 1, 2026 and must stay up through April 30, 2026. There are no grace periods built into this rule, and inspectors are aware that many employers miss the April 30 takedown deadline as well as the posting start date.

Preparation for the February 1 deadline should ideally begin in December or early January. Before you can post the 300A Summary, you need to complete the OSHA 300 Log for the full prior year, which means recording every qualifying injury and illness that occurred from January 1 through December 31. If your organization uses an electronic recordkeeping system, generating the summary totals is typically automated. If you maintain paper records, you will need to manually transfer totals from the log to the summary form, so building in extra time for review and error-checking is wise.

One of the trickier aspects of the posting deadline involves incidents that occur near the end of the year but may not be confirmed as work-related or recordable until January. OSHA's recordkeeping rule gives employers seven calendar days to record a new case after learning that an injury or illness is recordable.

If a December 31 incident is confirmed recordable on January 5, you have until January 12 to add it to the log — which means you may still be finalizing your 300 Log even as you approach the February 1 posting deadline. Employers must include all confirmed recordable cases from the prior year on the 300A, even those finalized close to the deadline.

Seasonal and temporary businesses face an added complexity. If your establishment was not in operation during part of the calendar year, you are still required to post the 300A for the period during which it was operating. The number of employee hours worked and the total number of employees — fields on the 300A Summary — should reflect only the period of active operation. OSHA allows employers to prorate these figures, but the posting obligation itself is not waived simply because the business is seasonal.

For workplaces that operate multiple shifts, the posting location must be accessible to all shifts, not just the daytime crew. If your night-shift workers never pass the main break room where the posting is displayed, you may not be in compliance even though the document is physically posted. OSHA requires notices to be posted where employees can actually read them during their normal workday. Some employers solve this by posting in multiple locations — the main entrance, the break room, and near the time clock — to ensure maximum visibility across all schedules.

Electronic alternatives to physical posting have become increasingly relevant since the COVID-19 pandemic shifted many workforces to remote or hybrid arrangements. OSHA issued guidance during the pandemic clarifying that electronic posting was acceptable for employees who do not report to a physical location, provided the electronic posting is made accessible on the first day of the posting period and remains accessible throughout the required posting window. However, this flexibility is not a blanket override of physical posting requirements for employees who do report in person. Hybrid workplaces need both physical and electronic postings to cover all employee categories.

At the close of the posting period on April 30, you are not done with the 300A Summary. The regulation requires you to retain it — along with the underlying 300 Log and all 301 Incident Reports — for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover. You must make these records available to current and former employees, their personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives such as union officials within four business hours of a request. OSHA compliance officers can demand access immediately during an on-site inspection, so your records must always be organized and retrievable.

OSHA enforces its recordkeeping and posting requirements through targeted inspections and in response to employee complaints. Penalties for recordkeeping violations fall into two main categories: other-than-serious violations, which carry penalties up to $16,131 per violation as of 2026, and willful or repeated violations, which can reach $161,323 per violation.

In practice, OSHA often issues multiple citations for a single inspection — one for failing to maintain an accurate log, one for failing to post the summary, and one for failing to retain records — which means the total financial exposure can multiply quickly. An employer who has never been cited before may still face tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for a first-time recordkeeping audit.

Willful violations are particularly serious because they carry both higher financial penalties and the possibility of criminal referral in cases involving worker fatalities. OSHA considers a violation willful when the employer either knew about the requirement and chose to ignore it, or acted with plain indifference to employee rights.

Under-recording injuries to make a facility's safety record look better than it is — a practice known as injury suppression — is treated as a willful violation. OSHA's National Emphasis Program on Recordkeeping specifically targets establishments where injury rates appear unusually low compared to industry averages, because suspiciously clean records can be a sign of systematic underreporting.

Employees also have enforceable rights regarding the OSHA 300 records. Under 29 CFR 1904.35, current and former employees (and their personal representatives) are entitled to access the OSHA 300 Log for any establishment where they work or have worked within the past year. The employer must provide access by the end of the next business day after a request. If the employee requests copies, the employer may charge copying fees but cannot charge more than normal reproduction costs. Refusing an employee's legitimate request for access to the 300 Log is a separate recordkeeping violation, on top of any posting failures.

Since 2017, OSHA has also required certain employers to submit their recordkeeping data electronically through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA). The current rule requires establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by OSHA recordkeeping rules to submit their 300A Summary data electronically each year.

Additionally, establishments with 20 to 249 employees in high-hazard industries must also submit 300A data electronically. As of January 1, 2024, establishments with 100 or more employees in specified high-hazard industries must also submit their full 300 Log and 301 Incident Report data electronically — a significant expansion of the electronic submission requirement that many employers were unprepared for.

The electronic submission data is used by OSHA to target inspection resources more efficiently. When an establishment's submitted injury rates are higher than industry peers, it may be flagged for a programmed inspection. Conversely, if the rates are unusually low, it may trigger a recordkeeping audit to verify the data is accurate.

This means that the act of submitting data electronically is not just an administrative task — it directly affects the likelihood and nature of future OSHA enforcement activity at your facility. Accuracy and completeness in your electronic submissions are just as important as accuracy in the paper records themselves.

Recordkeeping violations discovered during OSHA inspections often cascade into broader enforcement actions. When an inspector finds inaccurate 300 Logs, they frequently expand the scope of the inspection to examine whether the underlying safety programs are also inadequate. An injury that was not recorded may also be one that was not properly investigated, which means the hazard that caused it may still be present in the workplace. This is exactly the scenario that OSHA's recordkeeping regulations are designed to prevent — a connected chain of documentation, investigation, hazard abatement, and accountability that keeps workers safer over time.

For OSHA certification candidates, questions about recordkeeping violations and penalties appear regularly on the OSHA 10-hour and 30-hour course assessments. Understanding the difference between other-than-serious and willful violations, knowing the per-violation penalty caps, and recognizing the specific citations that can result from posting failures are all areas where test-takers commonly lose points. Employers and safety professionals who understand the enforcement side of recordkeeping compliance are much better positioned to build internal systems that prevent violations before they occur.

For those preparing for OSHA certification exams, the 300 log posting rules are a consistent source of exam questions because they sit at the intersection of multiple regulatory concepts: recordability criteria, form-specific requirements, posting logistics, records access rights, and enforcement penalties.

Understanding these rules cold — without needing to look them up — is exactly the kind of practical knowledge that separates candidates who pass on the first attempt from those who struggle with the application-level questions. Test writers know that most candidates understand the big picture but miss the details, so they craft questions around the specific dates, form numbers, and procedural nuances that trip people up.

One area where candidates consistently lose points is confusing the OSHA 300 Log with the OSHA 300A Summary. Remember: the log is the detailed running record maintained throughout the year, and the summary is the aggregated form that gets posted. If an exam question asks what must be posted from February 1 to April 30, the correct answer is always the 300A Summary — never the 300 Log.

Similarly, if a question asks who must sign the form before posting, the answer is the highest-ranking company official at that establishment, not a safety manager or HR director (unless they hold the title of highest-ranking official at that location).

The recordability threshold is another exam flashpoint. Not every workplace injury or illness must be recorded on the OSHA 300 Log. OSHA defines a recordable case as one involving a work-related injury or illness that results in: death; days away from work; restricted work or transfer to another job; medical treatment beyond first aid; loss of consciousness; or a diagnosis of a significant injury or illness by a healthcare professional.

First-aid-only cases — even if the worker visits a doctor — are not recordable if the treatment provided falls within OSHA's definition of first aid. Getting comfortable with this list of criteria will help you answer both straightforward definitional questions and scenario-based questions that describe a specific incident and ask whether it must be recorded.

The seven-day recording rule is also frequently tested. OSHA requires that a new recordable case be entered on the 300 Log within seven calendar days of the employer learning that the case is recordable. This is not seven business days — it is seven calendar days, including weekends and holidays.

For incidents that are ambiguous at first (for example, a soft-tissue injury that doesn't clearly require medical treatment beyond first aid until a follow-up appointment), the seven-day clock starts when the employer has enough information to determine that the case meets the recording criteria, not necessarily on the date of the incident itself.

Privacy case rules are tested less frequently but can appear on more advanced OSHA exams. The specific categories of illness and injury that qualify as privacy cases under 29 CFR 1904.29(b)(7) include: intimate body parts or reproductive system cases, HIV/AIDS or hepatitis cases, mental illness cases, tuberculosis cases, sexual assaults, and needle-stick or sharps injuries involving blood-borne pathogens.

For these cases, the employer must withhold the employee's name on the 300 Log and substitute the term "privacy case." The employer may, however, keep a separate confidential list linking privacy case reference numbers to employee names, which they must provide to OSHA upon request.

Multi-establishment recordkeeping questions appear on the 30-hour exam more than the 10-hour exam. The key rule to remember is that each physical location — each establishment — must have its own 300 Log and its own posted 300A Summary. If a company has a headquarters in Chicago and a warehouse in Atlanta, the Chicago office's 300 Log cannot include Atlanta's incidents, and vice versa.

However, for establishments that have no fixed location (such as construction worksites, pipeline operations, or utility line crews), special rules apply regarding how to assign incidents and which establishment's log they are recorded on. These edge cases are worth understanding even if they appear on only a small number of exam questions, because they reveal a deeper understanding of how OSHA's recordkeeping framework was designed.

Studying the actual OSHA forms — Form 300, Form 300A, and Form 301 — is one of the most underrated exam preparation strategies. Reading the forms and their instructions directly helps you absorb the terminology OSHA uses, which is precisely the terminology that appears in exam questions. Many OSHA 10 and 30 candidates study from secondary sources that paraphrase the regulations, but when exam questions use exact regulatory language, familiarity with the primary source material makes the difference between confident recognition and uncertain guessing.

Building a reliable internal system for OSHA 300 Log compliance is far more effective than scrambling to reconstruct records before an audit. The foundation of a good system is a clear incident reporting procedure that every supervisor understands. When a worker is injured or becomes ill, the supervisor's first call should be to the safety department, not just to the workers' compensation carrier. A parallel notification ensures that the safety team can evaluate recordability within the seven-day window without depending on the insurance adjuster's timeline, which often moves on a different schedule than OSHA's requirements.

Training supervisors on what constitutes a recordable case is one of the highest-return investments in your recordkeeping compliance program. Supervisors are often the first to learn about incidents, and their initial assessment — recordable or not — shapes everything that follows. Supervisors who are not trained may inadvertently classify recordable cases as first-aid-only, either to protect their team's safety metrics or simply out of genuine uncertainty. Regular refresher training on the recordability criteria, delivered in plain language with realistic scenarios, reduces both accidental under-recording and the risk of willful violations triggered by metric pressure.

Designating a specific individual — ideally a safety manager or HR professional — as the 300 Log custodian gives your compliance program a single point of accountability. This person should have calendar reminders set for: the December 31 year-end close, the January internal review and executive signature preparation period, the February 1 posting deadline, the March 2 electronic submission deadline (if applicable), and the April 30 takedown and retention transition date. Written procedures for each of these milestones, stored in your safety management system, provide institutional memory that survives staff turnover.

Many employers now use digital safety management software that automates much of the 300 Log maintenance workflow. These platforms allow supervisors to enter incidents directly through a mobile app, automatically classify potential recordability, generate the 300A Summary with the click of a button, and export data in the format required for OSHA's electronic submission portal. While software does not eliminate the need for human judgment about recordability or executive accountability for the signature requirement, it dramatically reduces the administrative burden and the risk of data entry errors that can trigger citations during an inspection.

Conducting an internal recordkeeping audit in the fourth quarter of each year is a practice that many safety professionals recommend. This involves reviewing every incident report, near-miss report, and workers' compensation claim from the year and comparing them against the entries in the 300 Log to identify any cases that should have been recorded but were not.

It also involves checking that every recorded case was classified correctly and that all required fields are complete. Addressing discrepancies before the year closes and before the 300A Summary is signed gives you a cleaner record going into the posting period and reduces the risk of having to amend records during an inspection.

Engaging employees in the recordkeeping process strengthens both compliance and safety culture. Workers who know their employer accurately records and posts injury data are more likely to report injuries promptly, which enables faster investigation and hazard correction. Workers who believe their employer is suppressing injury counts are less likely to report, which perpetuates the hazards and increases long-term injury risk. Communicating to your workforce why the 300A Summary is posted — not just that it must be posted — reframes the compliance obligation as a shared commitment to transparency and continuous safety improvement rather than a bureaucratic checkbox.

Finally, if your organization undergoes a change of ownership during the year, it is important to understand how OSHA's recordkeeping obligations transfer. The successor employer is responsible for maintaining the records of any establishment it takes over for the remainder of the five-year retention period for those records. This means that during due diligence before an acquisition, reviewing the target company's OSHA 300 Logs for the past five years is both a compliance necessity and a valuable window into the safety culture and history of the facilities being acquired.