Citations Fell 17 Percent Last Year. Scaffolding Went the Other Way

Chris Fredette
1 day ago
3 min read

Every Fall, a version of the same headline goes around: fall protection is OSHA's most cited standard again. It has been true for fifteen years running, which makes it about as newsworthy as saying concrete is heavy lol.

The FY2025 numbers are more interesting than the headline. In the OSHA Top 10 violations 2025 data, citations across the entire list fell roughly 17 percent year over year, from 28,337 down to 23,537. Almost every category came down. One went up. That split is worth more attention than the ranking, because it says something about which hazards a jobsite can fix by trying harder and which ones require planning that nobody wants to do.

By the Numbers

Fall Protection, General Requirements (1926.501): 5,914 citations, first for the 15th consecutive year.
Total Top 10 citations fell from 28,337 in FY2024 to 23,537 in FY2025, a drop of about 17 percent.
Fall protection fell by 393. Hazard communication fell by 342. Ladder safety fell by 168. Respiratory protection dropped by 517.
Scaffolding rose by 32 citations and moved from eighth to seventh.
Construction standards under Part 1926 make up half the list. General industry standards under Part 1910 make up the other half.

These are preliminary figures OSHA released at the National Safety Council Congress in

September, based on an August cutoff. Final numbers shift slightly. The rankings rarely do.

Why almost everything improved

A 17 percent drop is a big move, and it is worth being careful about what it means. Fewer citations is not the same as fewer hazards. Citation counts reflect enforcement activity as much as field conditions, and inspection volume alone can move that number without a single jobsite getting safer.

That said, the categories that fell the most have something in common. Respiratory protection, down 517, is largely a program and paperwork problem: medical evaluations and fit testing. Hazard communication is labeling, safety data sheets, and training records. These are violations you close out at a desk. A contractor who decides to get their documentation in order can clear them in a few weeks.

Fall protection citations are different in kind but often just as correctable in the moment. An unprotected edge gets a guardrail. A worker gets tied off. The fix happens while the inspector is still standing there.

Why scaffolding went the other way

Scaffolding was the only category on the list that rose. That is not a rounding error, because scaffold violations are structurally different from the ones that fell.

You cannot fix a bad scaffold at a desk, and usually not in the moment either. A scaffold erected wrong is wrong from the ground up. The base is not level, the mudsills are missing, the planking is short, the ties are not there. By the time a crew is working off it, correcting the problem means taking it apart. Nobody wants to hear that on day nine of a fourteen-day schedule.

Scaffold problems also compound across trades. Framing, masonry, roofing, and siding crews inherit whatever the last crew left them, often without knowing who erected it or whether a competent person has looked at it since the last modification. Somebody needs a different reach, the scaffold gets modified, and nobody re-inspects.

That is the pattern worth taking away. Hazards that require planning ahead do not improve when everyone tries harder in the moment. They improve when somebody owns them before the work starts.

What to actually check this week

If you are reading this list for a to-do, the ranking matters less than the trend. The categories that fell are the ones where effort converts directly into compliance. If you are still getting cited for respiratory protection medical evaluations, that is solvable administrative work and the rest of the industry is solving it.

The scaffolding number is the one that should prompt an actual check. Three questions: who is your designated competent person for scaffolds, when did they last inspect the ones standing on your site right now, and does that inspection happen again after every modification rather than only at erection.

If you cannot answer the third one with a documented process, that is where your exposure is.

Key Takeaways

Fall protection remained the most cited standard for the 15th straight year at 5,914 citations.
Total Top 10 citations fell about 17 percent, from 28,337 to 23,537, with most categories declining.
Scaffolding was the only category to rise, up 32 citations and moving from eighth to seventh.
The categories that improved most are program and documentation problems a contractor can fix deliberately. Scaffolding is not one of them.
Verify your scaffold competent person and whether re-inspection actually happens after modifications, not just at erection.

These are preliminary FY2025 figures. FY2026 data is typically released the following September, and this post will be updated when it lands.