OSHA 300A posting requirements
Published 2026-09-04 · 7 min read · sources checked 2026-09-04
Three dates and one signature. Miss any of them and you have a posting violation that costs the same as a serious one — and unlike most citations, this is the one an inspector can confirm from the doorway.
The window: February 1 to April 30
1904.32: you must post the summary no later than February 1 of the year following the year the records cover, and keep the posting in place until April 30. Three months on the wall, every year, whether or not anything happened.
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| by Feb 1 | 300A posted where notices to employees are customarily posted |
| by Mar 2 | Electronic submission, for establishments that meet the thresholds |
| until Apr 30 | Posting stays up |
| 5 years | Retention of the log, summary, privacy list and 301 forms |
Read from 29 CFR 1904.32 and 1904.41 on 2026-09-04.
Notice
Who is allowed to sign
The certification is not a formality and not delegable to whoever is in the trailer. 1904.32 requires a company executive to certify that they have examined the OSHA 300 log and that they reasonably believe, based on their knowledge of the process by which the information was recorded, that the annual summary is correct and complete.
The standard names who counts as a company executive, and the list is short — an owner, an officer of the corporation, the highest-ranking company official working at the establishment, or that official’s supervisor. A safety coordinator’s signature does not satisfy it.
Electronic submission by March 2
Separate from the posting, and on its own deadline. 1904.41: establishments required to submit must do so by March 2 of the year after the calendar year the forms cover.
- 250 or more employees at any time during the previous calendar year, at an establishment required to keep records → submit the information from Form 300A.
- 100 or more employees at an establishment classified in an industry listed in Appendix B to Subpart E → submit the information from Forms 300 and 301, in addition to the 300A.
Both are establishment counts, not company counts. A contractor with four establishments of 80 people each submits nothing under the 250 rule, and a single establishment that peaked at 260 for two weeks in July does.
What getting it wrong costs
Posting violations carry the same maximum as serious and other-than-serious ones. For penalties assessed after January 15, 2026, that maximum is $16,550 per violation. A willful or repeated violation is $165,514.
Which is a strange trade for a piece of paper. The full penalty schedule, the abatement clock and the contest window are in OSHA penalties and citations, and the log the summary is built from is covered in OSHA 300 log requirements.
Sources, with the date each was read
- 29 CFR 1904.32 — Annual summary (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
- 29 CFR 1904.41 — Electronic submission of injury and illness records (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
- 29 CFR 1904.1 — Partial exemption for employers with 10 or fewer employees (OSHA)read 2026-09-04
- OSHA Penalties — maximum amounts effective after Jan. 15, 2026read 2026-09-04