OSHA Form 300A: what it is, who must post it, and when

Last updated 2026-07-10

What is OSHA Form 300A?

OSHA Form 300A is the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. It's the third piece of OSHA's recordkeeping system, sitting next to the OSHA 300 Log (the line-by-line incident record) and the OSHA 301 Incident Report (the detail form for each case). The 300A takes the totals off your 300 Log and puts them on one page your employees can read.

The form asks for nine data categories: total deaths, total cases with days away from work, total cases with job transfer or restriction, total other recordable cases, total days away from work, total days of job transfer or restriction, the number of injuries, and the number of illnesses broken into six types (skin disorders, respiratory conditions, poisonings, hearing loss, all other illnesses, and total illnesses). You also enter your company name, establishment address, industry, annual average number of employees, and total hours worked. ^[1]

Here's what trips people up. The 300A is not the 300 Log. The 300 Log is your running record kept all year. The 300A is the summary you certify and post once. You can't skip the log and fill in the summary from memory. Every number on the 300A has to trace back to a 300 Log entry. ^[1]

The rule behind all of this is 29 CFR 1904, OSHA's recordkeeping regulation. The specific command to complete and post the 300A lives at 29 CFR 1904.32. ^[1]

Who is required to fill out and post OSHA Form 300A?

Any employer with more than 10 employees at any point during the previous calendar year, who isn't in a partially exempt industry, must keep OSHA injury and illness records and post the 300A each year. That's the general rule. ^[2]

The "more than 10" test is based on peak employment across the year, not your headcount on any single day. Eleven people on payroll for one week likely clears the threshold.

Partial exemptions are where it gets messy. OSHA keeps a list of industries, classified by NAICS code, that count as low-hazard and are exempt from routine recordkeeping. The list covers most retail, finance, insurance, real estate, and service sectors. You'll find the full list in Appendix A to Subpart B of 29 CFR 1904. ^[2] Offices, legal services firms, and many food and beverage retailers land in the exempt group. But partial exemption is not total exemption. Even exempt employers have to report any fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss within the timeframes at 29 CFR 1904.39. ^[2]

State-plan states run their own OSHA programs. California, Michigan, Washington, and roughly 23 others may have recordkeeping rules that differ from federal OSHA in small ways. Operating in one of those states? Check your state agency's version. ^[3]

One practical note. Even if you're exempt and had a clean year, keep informal records anyway. If OSHA ever investigates an incident, a documented injury history helps you. Some state programs and insurance carriers want records no matter what your federal exemption status says.

When do you post OSHA Form 300A? What are the deadlines?

You post the 300A from February 1 through April 30 of the year after the calendar year it covers. Injuries that happened in 2024 go on the 2024 summary, which you post starting February 1, 2025, and keep up until April 30, 2025. ^[1]

The form stays up the full window. Take it down on March 15 because the audit wrapped up and you've committed a violation. OSHA inspectors have cited employers for pulling it early.

Post it where you post other required notices, usually the same spot as the OSHA Job Safety and Health poster. If your business runs multiple locations that count as separate OSHA establishments, each one needs its own posting. That poster rule is a related obligation worth knowing. Our piece on The OSHA poster: what it is, where to get it, and what happens if you skip it walks through it.

Before the form goes up, a company executive has to certify it. That language isn't loose. 29 CFR 1904.32(b)(3) says the certification has to come from a company executive, defined as an owner, an officer of a corporation, the highest-ranking company official working at the establishment, or that person's supervisor at a higher level. A safety manager or HR director signing on their own doesn't satisfy the requirement unless they're also a company officer. ^[1]

Missed February 1? Post it now anyway. A late posting beats no posting, and OSHA treats prompt correction as a factor that reduces penalties.

How do you fill out OSHA Form 300A correctly?

Start with your OSHA 300 Log for the year. Add up each column and copy the totals onto the matching lines of the 300A. That's the whole core of it.

Here's where employers slip.

Total hours worked. Plenty of employers guess this or leave it blank. You need the actual total hours every employee worked during the year, salaried staff included. Overtime counts. Pull it from payroll. If you can't get exact hours for salaried people, OSHA lets you estimate at 2,000 hours per year per full-time worker, but write down your method. ^[1]

Annual average number of employees. Add up the total employees you had each week of the year, then divide by 52. Seasonal spikes matter. Don't just report your December 31 headcount.

Establishment information. Enter the physical location of the establishment, not corporate headquarters if those are different places. A roofing company working at 50 job sites but running one main office usually reports the office where records are kept as the establishment, though multi-establishment employers may need separate records per location depending on how OSHA defines an establishment in their situation.

Zero-injury year. No recordable injuries or illnesses? You still complete and post the 300A. You post a form showing zeros. Skipping the form because you had a clean year is one of the most common recordkeeping mistakes OSHA sees. ^[4]

The form is free to download at osha.gov. OSHA also posts electronic submission instructions for employers who have to file that way. ^[1]

Who has to submit Form 300A electronically to OSHA?

Posting and electronic submission are two different obligations, and the submission rules changed in 2023 and 2024.

The final rule published in July 2023 (effective January 1, 2024) widened who has to submit data electronically. Here's the current breakdown. ^[5]

Establishments with 250 or more employees that keep records submit their 300A data electronically each year.

Establishments with 20 to 249 employees in designated high-hazard industries submit 300A data electronically each year.

Establishments with 100 or more employees in the highest-hazard industries (a newly expanded list under the 2023 rule) now also submit the OSHA Form 300 (the log itself) and OSHA Form 301 (individual incident reports), on top of the 300A summary. That's the big shift from the 2023 rule. ^[5]

Submission runs through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application (ITA) at osha.gov. The annual electronic deadline is March 2 of the year after the recording year. So 2024 data is due by March 2, 2025. That date is earlier than the April 30 end of the physical posting window, and separate from it. ^[11]

If your establishment crosses a size threshold mid-year, the count is based on peak employment in the prior year. When you're unsure, submit. OSHA has said it won't penalize good-faith submissions from employers who weren't strictly required to file.

The ITA system can be fussy. Set a calendar reminder for late January to start the process, not late February.

What counts as a recordable injury or illness on the 300A?

This is where the day-to-day confusion lives. Not every workplace injury lands on the 300 Log, so not every injury rolls up to the 300A.

An injury or illness is recordable if it's work-related, is a new case, and meets at least one criterion under 29 CFR 1904.7: death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or diagnosis of a significant injury or illness by a healthcare professional. ^[6]

First aid is the dividing line. OSHA defines first aid in 29 CFR 1904.7 as a specific list of treatments: non-prescription medication at nonprescription strength, tetanus shots, cleaning and bandaging minor wounds, non-rigid back belts or non-prescription supports, removing splinters, and a handful more. Treatment past that list is recordable. ^[6]

Work-relatedness is the harder call. An injury is work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment caused or contributed to it, or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition. The work environment covers any location where employees are working or present as a condition of employment. There are exceptions, including injuries that happen on employer premises but result solely from personal tasks during personal time, and injuries caused entirely by an employee doing something personal and unrelated to work. ^[6]

A common misread: a positive COVID-19 case can be recordable if work exposure is the likely cause. OSHA issued guidance on this during the pandemic. Deciding work-relatedness for infectious diseases takes reasonable judgment about where the exposure came from. ^[6]

For a template to document individual incidents before they roll into the 300A, see our guide on incident report forms.

What are the OSHA penalties for not posting or filing Form 300A?

Short version: it's real money, and OSHA does cite for recordkeeping.

As of 2024, OSHA's civil penalty maximums are $16,131 per serious violation and $161,323 per willful or repeated violation. ^[7] Recordkeeping failures, including not posting the 300A during the window, not maintaining the 300 Log, or not submitting electronically when required, can each be cited as separate violations.

OSHA classifies most recordkeeping violations as "other than serious" with a maximum of $16,131. But if OSHA finds you willfully kept injuries off the log (you knew about them and deliberately left them out), that jumps to a willful violation at the higher tier. Enforcement actions in the tens of thousands of dollars for systematic recordkeeping failures at a single establishment are on record.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded about 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in private industry in 2022, a rate of 2.7 cases per 100 full-time workers. ^[8] When your 300A numbers look implausibly low for your industry, that's a flag for closer scrutiny.

Here's what genuinely helps in an enforcement situation: documentation showing you made a reasonable effort to comply. An employer who had a system, trained supervisors, and made a classification error gets treated differently than one with no process at all. A written safety program that addresses recordkeeping is part of that documented effort. If you're building one from scratch, SafetyFolio's safety program generator gives you a recordkeeping section in about 15 minutes instead of a consultant's invoice.

How does the OSHA 300 Log differ from Form 300A?

The 300 Log is the detailed, confidential incident-by-incident record you keep all year. The 300A is the year-end summary you post publicly. They work together but do different jobs.

The 300 Log carries the employee's name, job title, date of injury, where it happened, a description, and the case outcome. Because it holds personal health information, you don't post it publicly. OSHA has specific access rules: current and former employees (and their personal representatives) can access records of their own cases, and authorized employee representatives can access the 300 Log with personal identifiers removed. ^[1]

The 300A shows only aggregate counts, no names. That's why it can hang where every employee sees it.

Keep both forms for five years after the end of the calendar year they cover. The five-year retention rule is at 29 CFR 1904.33. ^[1] Operating today, you should have 300 Logs and 300A summaries going back to 2020 ready for inspection.

If OSHA inspects and asks for records, they can request the 300 Logs going back five years on the spot. Not having them is a violation in itself, separate from whatever triggered the visit.

For a sense of what inspectors look at during a visit, our overview of osha covers the inspection process and employer rights.

Does Form 300A have to be posted for establishments with no injuries?

Yes. This is one of the most misunderstood points in OSHA recordkeeping.

If you're a covered employer (more than 10 employees, not in an exempt industry), you complete and post the 300A even when every line reads zero. OSHA's position, stated in its letters of interpretation, is that the posting requirement applies whether or not any recordable cases happened. ^[4]

The reason is simple. OSHA wants employees to be able to confirm management is tracking safety performance. A posted form with zeros proves the system ran. No posting gives employees no way to know if records were kept at all.

So a clean year is worth celebrating. Post the zeros. It's good communication with your crew, and it keeps you in compliance.

What is the difference between OSHA Form 300A and OSHA Form 301?

Form 301 is the Injury and Illness Incident Report, the individual case detail form you complete for each recordable injury within seven calendar days of learning about it. Form 300A is the year-end aggregate summary.

Think of it in flow. Every recordable case gets a 301 (one form per incident). Those cases also get a line on the 300 Log. At year end, the 300 Log totals feed the 300A.

Private employers can swap a workers' compensation first report of injury (or equivalent form) for the OSHA 301, as long as it carries all the same data elements. ^[1] Many state workers' comp forms qualify, which cuts duplication. Check your state form against the 301's required fields before you assume it works as a substitute.

Under the 2023 electronic submission rule, establishments with 100 or more employees in the highest-hazard industries now submit 301 data electronically, on top of the 300A. That's a real change from prior practice, and it caught plenty of larger employers off guard when it took effect January 1, 2024. ^[5]

How does OSHA use 300A data after electronic submission?

OSHA publishes the 300A data it collects. That's not theoretical. After each submission cycle, OSHA posts establishment-level injury and illness data on its public website. Your company name, location, industry, and injury counts become public record. ^[11]

OSHA uses the data to target inspections. Establishments with injury rates well above their industry average are more likely to draw an inspection. The agency's Site-Specific Targeting (SST) program ranks establishments for inspection priority using 300A submission data. ^[9]

The BLS uses similar data to produce the annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, which generates the industry-level injury rates cited across OSHA standards and enforcement guidance. ^[8]

For your own operation, several years of 300A data is genuinely useful for spotting trends. If your days-away-from-work cases keep climbing year over year in one job category, that's a signal worth chasing before OSHA uses it to put you on a list.

Understanding the broader OSHA framework gives you context for why recordkeeping matters beyond compliance. Our piece on what does osha stand for covers the agency's structure and enforcement authority for anyone who wants that foundation.

What records and training do supervisors need to support 300A compliance?

The 300A is only as accurate as the information reaching it. Your supervisors need to know three things: what counts as recordable, how to report fast enough to meet the seven-day 301 deadline, and who in the company makes the recordability call.

OSHA doesn't mandate specific recordkeeping training. But it's hard to argue you made a good-faith compliance effort when your front-line supervisors have never been told what goes on the log. A 30-minute session covering the recordability criteria, the reporting chain, and the posting requirement costs you almost nothing and gives you defensible documentation that you tried.

Watch for these breakdowns: supervisors who classify everything as first aid to keep the numbers down, injured employees who stay quiet because they're worried about their jobs, and HR teams that enter cases on the 300 Log but never carry the totals to the 300A. All three are violations waiting to happen.

Anti-retaliation protections under 29 CFR 1904.35 bar you from disciplining employees for reporting injuries. OSHA has cited employers for blanket drug-testing policies triggered only by injury reports, treating them as implicit retaliation. ^[10] Your reporting culture drives 300A accuracy as much as it reflects your ethics.

For wider safety training context, our articles on osha training and osha 30 cover what supervisors and workers can learn through OSHA's programs.

What if you discover an error on a prior year's 300A?

Fix it. OSHA doesn't prohibit correcting records, and there's no penalty for filing an amended 300A when you catch an honest mistake. The five-year retention rule means you're expected to have prior years on hand, and corrections made before OSHA shows up get treated very differently than discrepancies found during an inspection.

The mechanics: update your 300 Log to reflect the correction, recalculate the 300A totals, and re-certify the corrected 300A with an executive signature. Keep a note of what changed and why. If you submitted that year electronically through the ITA, you can submit an amended file.

One scenario worth flagging. If you find cases that should have been recorded but weren't, add them to the 300 Log and 300A right away. The five-year lookback means late additions are allowed, and OSHA's position in its letters of interpretation is that recording late beats not recording. ^[4] OSHA citations generally carry a six-month statute of limitations from the date of the violation, so very old errors are usually past the window for citation anyway. That's not a reason to sit on corrections.

Frequently asked questions

Is OSHA Form 300A the same as the OSHA 300 Log?

No. The OSHA 300 Log is the detailed, case-by-case record of every recordable injury kept throughout the year. Form 300A is the year-end summary that totals the 300 Log columns. The 300A is posted publicly; the 300 Log stays confidential except when employees or their representatives request access under 29 CFR 1904.35. Both are required under 29 CFR 1904 for covered employers.

What is the deadline to post OSHA Form 300A?

Form 300A must be posted by February 1 of the year following the calendar year it covers, and it stays posted through April 30. So the 2024 summary posts from February 1, 2025 through April 30, 2025. The electronic submission deadline to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application is March 2 for employers required to submit electronically.

What employers are exempt from the OSHA 300A requirement?

Employers with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the prior year are exempt from routine recordkeeping. Employers in certain low-hazard industries classified by NAICS code, listed in Appendix A to Subpart B of 29 CFR 1904, are also partially exempt. All employers, exempt or not, must report fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations, and eye losses to OSHA under 29 CFR 1904.39.

Who must sign and certify OSHA Form 300A?

A company executive must certify the form. Under 29 CFR 1904.32(b)(3), that means an owner, a corporate officer, the highest-ranking official at the establishment, or that person's direct supervisor at a higher level. A safety director or HR manager who isn't a company officer can't certify the form alone. The signature confirms the information is true, accurate, and complete.

Do I have to post Form 300A if we had zero injuries all year?

Yes. Covered employers post the 300A even if all totals are zero. OSHA has confirmed this in its letters of interpretation. The posting requirement exists so employees can verify the employer is tracking safety data. Posting a form showing zeros is compliant; not posting at all because you had a clean year is a recordkeeping violation.

Where exactly do you post OSHA Form 300A in the workplace?

Post it in a conspicuous place where employees report to work and where notices are customarily posted. This is typically the same bulletin board as the OSHA Job Safety and Health poster and other required notices. Multi-establishment employers may need a separate posting for each location that qualifies as an OSHA establishment under 29 CFR 1904.30.

What are the penalties for not posting OSHA Form 300A?

OSHA can cite failure to post as a violation with penalties up to $16,131 as of 2024. Willful or repeated violations reach $161,323. Separate penalties can apply for each distinct recordkeeping failure, such as not maintaining the 300 Log, failing to post the 300A, and not submitting electronically, so total exposure across multiple violations can be substantial.

What industries are required to submit 300A data electronically to OSHA?

Under the 2023 final rule effective January 1, 2024, establishments with 250 or more employees submit electronically. Establishments with 20 to 249 employees in high-hazard industries also submit. Establishments with 100 or more employees in the highest-hazard industries now submit full 300 Log and 301 Incident Report data in addition to the 300A. Submission runs through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application.

How long do you have to keep OSHA Form 300A after posting?

You retain the 300A, the 300 Log, and the 301 Incident Reports for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover, per 29 CFR 1904.33. OSHA inspectors can request records during an inspection, and you must be able to produce them. The five-year retention means records from 2020 onward are currently required to be on hand.

Can a workers' comp report substitute for OSHA Form 301?

Yes, if the workers' compensation form contains all the data elements required by OSHA Form 301. Many state first report of injury forms qualify, but you verify field by field. This substitution doesn't apply to the 300 Log or the 300A; those forms have no substitute. Check the 301's required fields at osha.gov against your state's WC form before assuming compatibility.

Does Form 300A need to cover temporary or contract workers?

It depends on who controls the day-to-day work. Under 29 CFR 1904.31, you record injuries of any worker you supervise on a day-to-day basis, even if a staffing agency employs them. The host employer records injuries to temporary workers it supervises; the staffing agency doesn't. This controlling employer concept means your recordkeeping head count can run higher than your payroll.

What happens if OSHA finds my 300A numbers are much lower than industry averages?

OSHA may use the gap as grounds for a programmed inspection under the Site-Specific Targeting program, which prioritizes establishments with injury rates that look anomalous for their industry. Inspectors can then audit your 300 Log and individual 301 reports to see whether cases were properly recorded. Systematic under-recording can result in willful citation classifications with higher penalties.

Can employees access the OSHA 300 Log and 300A?

Current and former employees can access records of their own injury cases under 29 CFR 1904.35. Personal representatives acting on their behalf also have this right. Authorized employee representatives, such as union reps, can access the entire 300 Log with personal identifiers removed. The 300A is posted publicly so all employees see it during the February 1 to April 30 window.

How do I calculate total hours worked for the 300A if I have salaried employees?

For hourly employees, use actual hours from payroll records. For salaried employees without tracked hours, OSHA allows 2,000 hours per year as a standard estimate for a full-time worker, prorated for part-timers. Document which method you used. Total hours worked feeds the incident rate OSHA and BLS calculate, so an accurate figure affects how your establishment compares to industry benchmarks.

Sources

1. OSHA, 29 CFR Part 1904 Recordkeeping Rule (eCFR): Requirements to complete, certify, and post Form 300A from Feb 1 through Apr 30; five-year retention; executive certification; employee access rights; 300A vs 300 Log distinction; free form and electronic instructions.
2. OSHA, Recordkeeping Rule Overview and Partial Exemptions (osha.gov): Employers with more than 10 employees and not in exempt low-hazard industries must maintain OSHA records and post 300A; partial exemption list by NAICS code.
3. OSHA, State Plans Overview (osha.gov): State-plan states operate their own OSHA programs and may have recordkeeping requirements that differ from federal OSHA.
4. OSHA, Standard Interpretations / Letters of Interpretation (osha.gov): Covered employers must post the 300A even with zero injuries; late recording is preferred over no recording.
5. OSHA, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses Final Rule 2023 (Federal Register 88 FR 47254): 2023 final rule (effective Jan 1, 2024) requires establishments with 100+ employees in highest-hazard industries to submit Form 300 and 301 data in addition to 300A; expanded high-hazard industry lists.
6. OSHA, 29 CFR 1904.7 General Recording Criteria (eCFR): Recordability criteria: death, days away, restricted work, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or significant diagnosis; first aid definition and work-relatedness rules.
7. OSHA, Penalties / Civil Penalty Adjustments 2024 (osha.gov): As of 2024, maximum penalty is $16,131 per serious violation and $161,323 per willful or repeated violation.
8. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses 2022) (bls.gov): About 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were recorded in private industry in 2022, a rate of 2.7 cases per 100 full-time workers.
9. OSHA, Enforcement / Site-Specific Targeting (osha.gov): OSHA's SST program uses 300A electronic submission data to prioritize establishments for programmed inspections based on injury rates above industry average.
10. OSHA, 29 CFR 1904.35 Employee Involvement and Anti-Retaliation (eCFR): Employers are prohibited from disciplining employees for reporting injuries; OSHA has cited blanket post-injury drug testing policies as implicit retaliation.
11. OSHA, Injury Tracking Application (ITA) (osha.gov): Electronic 300A submission is made through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application by March 2 annually; OSHA publishes establishment-level data publicly after each submission cycle.