Workplace Safety: Understanding OSHA Data
In one line
214,554 employers report a DART rate under OSHA rules; the industry averages below show why the same raw rate reads as safe in one sector and alarming in another.
- 214,554
- employers with a reported DART rate
- 10
- industry sectors ranked below
- OSHA ITA
- source · annual establishment filing
A safety grade is always read against the employer's own industry mean, never against a raw national number.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires certain employers to report workplace injuries and illnesses annually. According to these OSHA filings, aggregated across hundreds of thousands of establishments, this data provides an objective measure of workplace safety that goes beyond corporate messaging.
Average injury rate by industry sector
Ranked safest to riskiest among this corpus's largest sectors, this is the baseline your rights and expectations should be read against, not the raw national DART spread.
What is the DART Rate?
DART stands for Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred. It measures the number of workplace injuries per 100 full-time equivalent workers that resulted in days away from work, restricted work activity, or transfer to another job. A DART rate of 3.0 means that for every 100 full-time workers, 3 experienced a significant workplace injury or illness in that year.
The DART rate is considered more meaningful than the Total Recordable Case (TRC) rate because it focuses on injuries serious enough to affect work capacity.
How Safety Grades Work
PlainEmployers calculates safety grades by comparing an employer's DART rate to the average for their specific industry. This industry-relative approach is important because some industries (like construction or manufacturing) inherently have higher injury rates than office-based industries.
- Grade A: DART rate significantly below industry average, demonstrably safer than peers
- Grade B: DART rate below industry average
- Grade C: DART rate near industry average
- Grade D: DART rate above industry average
- Grade F: DART rate significantly above industry average, more workplace injuries than peers
Interpreting the Data
A poor safety grade does not necessarily mean a workplace is dangerous in absolute terms, it means that relative to similar employers in the same industry, more injuries are occurring. Conversely, a good grade in a high-risk industry (like mining) still means higher absolute injury rates than a poor grade in a low-risk industry (like software).
Look for trends rather than single data points. An employer with a deteriorating DART rate over multiple years may be experiencing systematic safety issues. An improving trend suggests investment in safety programs.
Your Rights Under OSHA
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, workers have the right to:
- A safe workplace free from recognized hazards
- File a complaint with OSHA if you believe conditions are unsafe
- Receive training about workplace hazards in a language you understand
- Request an OSHA inspection of your workplace
- Protection from retaliation for reporting safety concerns
- Access your employer's injury and illness records
Frequently Asked Questions
Do all employers report to OSHA?
No. Only establishments in certain high-hazard industries or those with 250+ employees are required to submit annual electronic injury reports. Many smaller and low-hazard employers are exempt from this reporting requirement.
What does it mean if an employer has no safety data?
It usually means the employer is not required to file electronic injury reports with OSHA. This is common for office-based industries, small businesses, and certain exempt sectors. Absence of data does not mean an unsafe workplace.
Can OSHA data predict my personal safety at work?
OSHA data is a statistical measure across an entire organization. It provides a general indicator of safety culture and practices but cannot predict individual outcomes. Specific workplace conditions vary by facility, department, and role.
Quick reference table
| Signal | Source | Cadence | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| OSHA DART injury rate | OSHA ITA | Annual | Workplace injury benchmark vs industry mean |
| Composite safety grade | PlainEmployers (derived) | Annual | Quick A-F readout normalized across NAICS sectors |
How to use this guide in practice
Open this guide in one tab and a live employer profile in a second tab. Each section below maps to a section on the profile page, so you can read along while inspecting real data on a specific company you care about.
Worked example: comparing two retail employers
Use the live profile's filing count, wage distribution, safety record, and WARN history as separate source-bound signals. They describe disclosed filings and incidents; they do not establish an employer's total compensation, workplace quality, or an individual job decision.
Cross-references inside PlainEmployers
Every guide in this series links to live data pages. Browse all employers, look up an individual metro, or compare industry sectors to apply each concept immediately.
External authoritative sources
Every claim in this guide cites a primary federal source, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Injury Tracking Application, or state workforce-agency WARN registries. We do not cite secondary aggregators, opinion sites, or paywalled databases.
Source: OSHA Injury Tracking Application Establishment-level injury and illness summaries (OSHA Form 300A) · 2024
What to check before you rely on OSHA data
OSHA injury data is a starting point for understanding a workplace's safety record, not a legal determination.
- Look up the specific employer's safety grade and DART rate on its own profile page. Search employers
- Compare an employer's record against same-industry peers before drawing conclusions. Compare employers
- See exactly how safety grades are computed from OSHA records. How grades work
Every figure referenced here traces to a real OSHA Injury Tracking Application record or its published industry-average benchmark; absence of a record is not proof of absence.
Disclaimer: This guide is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional, legal, or safety advice. Consult a qualified professional or OSHA directly for guidance on specific workplace situations.
The live employer/ranking/methodology data linked from this guide is rendered directly from DOL H-1B disclosure filings, OSHA Injury Tracking Application records, and WARN Act layoff notices. The worked example and any regulatory thresholds cited in the guide text are illustrative, not drawn from this portal's live database. This guide's context references real OSHA DART rates and safety grades on the site, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.