How to Fill Out OSHA Form 300 (w/Examples) + FAQs

Filling out OSHA Form 300 means logging every recordable work-related injury and illness on a single establishment-level sheet within seven calendar days of learning about the case. The form captures the worker’s name, job title, date, location, a short description, the injury or illness type, and the days away or restricted, so that the company, employees, and OSHA inspectors can see the full safety picture at a glance.

The rule that creates this duty is 29 CFR Part 1904, the federal recordkeeping standard. Employers with more than 10 employees at any point during the year must keep the log unless they fall on the partially exempt industry list. Missing entries, late entries, or wrong classifications can trigger citations under the General Duty Clause and dollar penalties that climb past six figures for willful violations.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private industry employers reported 2.6 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in the most recent reporting year, and almost every one of them belongs on a Form 300 somewhere in America.

Here is what you will learn in this guide:

• 📋 How to enter every column on Form 300 line by line, with no guesswork.
• 🧑‍⚖️ Which federal rules, state plans, and OSHA letters of interpretation control each choice.
• 🏗️ Real named-person examples from construction, healthcare, warehousing, and manufacturing.
• 💻 How to submit your data through the Injury Tracking Application under the 2024 expansion.
• 💰 The exact 2026 penalty amounts for recordkeeping mistakes and how to avoid each one.

What OSHA Form 300 Is and Why It Exists

OSHA Form 300, officially titled the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, is the running list every covered employer keeps for each separate establishment during the calendar year. The form lives alongside two partner forms: Form 301, the detailed incident report, and Form 300A, the annual summary that gets posted on the wall every February. Together they form the recordkeeping backbone that OSHA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and your own safety team rely on.

The plain-English reason the form exists is simple. Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to cut workplace deaths and injuries, and you cannot fix what you do not measure. The consequence of skipping the log is that hazards stay hidden, repeat injuries pile up, and OSHA can issue a citation for each missing or wrong line.

Picture a small cabinet shop in Ohio. The owner, Marcus, thinks his three table-saw lacerations last year were “just part of the job” and never logged them. When an inspector arrives after a fourth, more serious cut, the missing entries become three separate other-than-serious citations on top of the original hazard. A common misconception is that only “big” injuries count, but the standard at 1904.7 makes clear that any case meeting the recording criteria belongs on the log, no matter how routine it feels.

Who Must Keep the Log

Most private-sector employers with more than 10 employees at any point during the prior calendar year must keep Form 300, and the count is company-wide, not per establishment, under 1904.1. The rule applies to each establishment, meaning each single physical location where business is conducted, so a chain with twelve stores keeps twelve separate logs.

Industries on the partially exempt list, such as legal services, insurance carriers, and many retail bakeries, are off the hook for routine recordkeeping but still must report fatalities and severe injuries under 1904.39. Public-sector workers in State Plan states like California, Michigan, and Washington follow their state’s near-identical version of the form. The consequence of assuming you are exempt when you are not is a willful citation, which in 2026 can hit $165,514 per violation under the annual penalty adjustment.

What Counts as Recordable

A case is recordable when it is work-related, a new case, and results in death, days away from work, restricted duty, job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant diagnosis such as a fractured bone or punctured eardrum, per 1904.7. First aid, listed at 1904.7(b)(5)(ii), is not recordable, and the list is exhaustive, meaning anything not on it counts as medical treatment.

The work-relatedness test under 1904.5 presumes any injury that happens in the work environment is work-related unless a narrow exception applies. The consequence of mislabeling a recordable case as first aid is a recordkeeping citation, and OSHA’s Recordkeeping Letters of Interpretation make clear that even a single prescription medication, even unfilled, makes the case recordable.

Step-by-Step: How to Fill Out OSHA Form 300

The blank form is downloadable from the OSHA recordkeeping forms page as a fillable PDF or Excel sheet. You complete the establishment header at the top once per year, then add one row per case as it occurs, within seven calendar days of learning the case is recordable, as required by 1904.29(b)(3).

The Establishment Header

At the top of the log you enter the establishment name, street address, city, state, ZIP, and the North American Industry Classification System code or the older Standard Industrial Classification code. You also list the average annual number of employees and the total hours worked, which become the denominators for your incidence rates later on Form 300A.

A common mistake is to put the parent company name and headquarters address at the top, but the rule wants the establishment, meaning the physical site where the workers report. The consequence is that your data ties to the wrong location and your DART rate is wrong, which can ruin a bid on a job that requires safety prequalification through services like ISNetworld or Avetta.

Column A: Case Number

Column A is a simple sequential number you assign, starting at 1 each January 1, that ties Form 300 to the matching Form 301 incident report. Many employers also use the same number on internal investigation files and workers’ compensation claims so everything traces together.

The consequence of duplicate or skipped numbers is confusion during an OSHA inspection, when the Compliance Safety and Health Officer asks for the 301 that matches case 14 and you cannot find it. A common misconception is that the number must follow workers’ compensation claim numbers, but OSHA only cares that the number is unique within that establishment for that year.

Column B: Employee’s Name

Enter the full name of the injured or ill employee, unless the case is a privacy concern case, in which case you write “Privacy Case” instead and keep a separate confidential list. Privacy concern cases include sexual assaults, mental illness, HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, needlesticks contaminated with another person’s blood, and any injury where the employee has voluntarily requested anonymity for an intimate body-part injury.

The consequence of writing a real name on a privacy case is a HIPAA-adjacent privacy violation that can also bring an OSHA citation under 1904.29(b)(9). A common misconception is that all illnesses are private, but only the specific categories in the rule qualify, so a routine carpal tunnel case uses the worker’s real name.

Column C: Job Title

Write the worker’s regular job title, such as Forklift Operator, Registered Nurse, Carpenter Apprentice, or Line Cook, not a generic label like “employee.” The job title helps OSHA and your safety team see whether one role is producing most of your injuries.

The consequence of vague titles is missed pattern recognition, which means the same hazard hurts the next worker. Priya, a hospital safety manager, found that ten of her fifteen needlesticks last year all listed “Nurse,” but when she split the data into ICU, ER, and floor nurses she saw the ER drove the rate, and a focused sharps safety program cut the count in half.

Columns D, E, and F: Date, Location, and Description

Column D is the date of the injury or the date of onset of illness, and for illnesses with a gradual onset you use the date a physician or licensed health care professional first recognized the condition. Column E is the specific location inside the establishment, such as Loading Dock 3 or Operating Room 2, not just the building address.

Column F is a short description of the injury or illness, the body part affected, and the object or substance that directly harmed the employee, such as Second-degree burn to right forearm from contact with hot oil at fryer station 2. The consequence of vague descriptions like “hurt at work” is that you cannot defend the entry during an inspection, you cannot trend the data, and you cannot prove the case was first aid if you later disagree with the recordable call.

Columns G through J: Case Classification

These four checkboxes are mutually exclusive and you pick the most serious outcome that applies during the case, per 1904.7(b)(4). Column G is Death, Column H is Days Away From Work, Column I is Job Transfer or Restriction, and Column J is Other Recordable Cases.

If a worker starts on restricted duty in March and then misses a week of work in April from the same case, you move the check from Column I to Column H and update the day counts. The consequence of leaving an old box checked is an inaccurate DART rate, which can knock you out of safety-sensitive bids and trigger a Site-Specific Targeting inspection if your rate looks too low.

Columns K and L: Days Counts

Column K counts calendar days the employee was away from work, and Column L counts calendar days on job transfer or restriction, with a cap of 180 days each per 1904.7(b)(3)(vii). You do not count the day of the injury itself, and you do count weekends, holidays, and any scheduled days off that fall inside the away or restricted period.

A common misconception is that you stop counting when the worker reaches Maximum Medical Improvement, but the count keeps running until the worker returns to full unrestricted duty or until you hit the 180-day cap. The consequence of undercounting is a citation for inaccurate records, and the consequence of overcounting is an inflated DART rate that triggers extra OSHA attention.

Columns M(1) through M(6): Injury or Illness Type

The final six columns force you to pick exactly one category: M(1) Injury, M(2) Skin Disorder, M(3) Respiratory Condition, M(4) Poisoning, M(5) Hearing Loss, or M(6) All Other Illnesses. Hearing loss has its own threshold under 1904.10, requiring a Standard Threshold Shift and a 25 dB hearing level relative to audiometric zero.

The consequence of mis-categorizing is a wrong illness count on Form 300A, which feeds the wrong picture to OSHA and to BLS. A common misconception is that any cut or scrape is “M(1) Injury,” but a chemical burn that breaks the skin from a corrosive splash is M(2) Skin Disorder, and the difference matters when NIOSH reviews industry trends.

Three Realistic Scenarios With Form 300 Entries

Below are the three most common Form 300 scenarios that show up during recordkeeping audits, drawn from OSHA enforcement data on the Establishment Search tool. Each shows the case fact pattern and the correct logging response so you can model your own entries.

Scenario 1: Warehouse Back Strain

Case Fact Pattern	Correct Form 300 Response
Picker named David lifts a 60-lb box, feels back pop, sees the company doctor, gets prescription muscle relaxers, and is restricted to no lifting over 10 lb for 12 days.	Column B: David Lee. Column C: Order Picker. Column D: 03/14/2026. Column E: Aisle 7, Pick Module B. Column F: Lower back strain from lifting carton. Column I: Checked. Column L: 12. Column M(1): Checked.

Scenario 2: Healthcare Needlestick

Case Fact Pattern	Correct Form 300 Response
ICU nurse sustains a contaminated needlestick during a blood draw, source patient is hepatitis C positive, nurse begins post-exposure protocol, no lost time.	Column B: Privacy Case. Column C: ICU Registered Nurse. Column D: 04/02/2026. Column E: ICU Bay 4. Column F: Needlestick during blood draw, source patient HCV+. Column J: Checked. Column M(6): Checked.

Scenario 3: Construction Fall

Case Fact Pattern	Correct Form 300 Response
Carpenter falls 8 feet from scaffold, fractures wrist, surgery, off work 45 days, then 30 days light duty before full release.	Column B: Carlos Ramirez. Column C: Journeyman Carpenter. Column D: 02/19/2026. Column E: North Tower, Level 3 Scaffold. Column F: Fractured right wrist, fall from scaffold. Column H: Checked. Column K: 45. Column L: 30. Column M(1): Checked.

Form 300A and Form 301: The Partner Forms

Form 300 alone is not the finish line, because 1904.32 requires you to summarize the year on Form 300A, certify it by a company executive, and post it in a visible spot from February 1 through April 30 every year. Form 301 is the per-incident detail report due within seven calendar days of learning the case is recordable, and many employers accept an equivalent like the first-report-of-injury workers’ comp form so long as it captures the same data.

The consequence of skipping the posting is a separate citation under 1904.32(b)(5), and the consequence of skipping Form 301 is yet another citation per case. A common misconception is that the workers’ comp First Report alone satisfies Form 301, but OSHA only accepts equivalents that capture every Form 301 data field, including the time the employee began work and the time of the event.

Certification by a Company Executive

Form 300A’s certification line must be signed by an owner, an officer of the corporation, the highest-ranking company official working at the establishment, or that official’s immediate supervisor, per 1904.32(b)(4). A safety manager or HR director is not eligible unless they meet one of those four definitions.

The consequence of a wrong signer is an invalidated certification and a citation, and OSHA has issued multiple citations for this exact mistake based on the Recordkeeping Letters of Interpretation. A common misconception is that an electronic signature is not allowed, but OSHA accepts electronic signatures so long as the eligible executive is the actual signer.

Five-Year Retention

You must keep Form 300, Form 300A, Form 301, and the privacy-case list for five years following the end of the calendar year the records cover, per 1904.33. During that period you must update Form 300 if you learn new information, even if the original entry was correct when made.

The consequence of tossing records early is a citation if an inspection or BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses request reaches back into the retention window. A common misconception is that you only update the year-end Form 300A, but the log itself must be updated for the full five years as new facts emerge.

Electronic Submission Through the ITA

Since the 2024 final rule, establishments with 100 or more employees in designated high-hazard industries must submit Form 300 and Form 301 data, plus the 300A summary, to the Injury Tracking Application by March 2 each year. Establishments with 20 to 249 employees in a separate set of high-hazard industries submit only Form 300A.

The consequence of missing the March 2 deadline is a citation, and OSHA publishes much of the submitted data on its public ITA search page, so customers and competitors can see your numbers. A common misconception is that the ITA replaces paper recordkeeping, but the underlying paper or electronic logs must still be maintained inside the establishment for the inspectors and employees who ask to see them.

How to Set Up an ITA Account

You create an account through Login.gov, then add each establishment by name, address, NAICS code, and average employee count. You can upload a CSV file, type each case manually, or use an API integration for large multi-site employers.

The consequence of mismatched establishment data between the ITA and your internal log is a confused inspector and a possible citation, so the names, addresses, and NAICS codes must match exactly. Aisha, a multi-site EHS director, learned this when her ITA listed “Plant 4” but her log said “Building D,” and the inspector spent two extra hours reconciling the two before clearing the recordkeeping audit.

Anti-Retaliation Tied to Reporting

1904.35 forbids employers from retaliating against workers who report injuries, and OSHA can issue a citation even without a Section 11(c) whistleblower complaint. Blanket post-injury drug testing, safety-incentive programs that punish reporting, and discipline for “late” reports of gradual-onset conditions can all violate the rule.

The consequence of a retaliation citation is back pay, reinstatement, and posting requirements, and the Whistleblower Protection Program can pile on civil penalties. A common misconception is that drug testing after every injury is required by workers’ comp, but most state workers’ comp laws permit but do not require it, so the OSHA limits still apply.

State Plan Nuances

Twenty-two State Plan states cover both private and public employers, and seven cover state and local public employees only, with their own near-identical recordkeeping rules. California’s Cal/OSHA uses a Form 300 that includes a “serious injury” reporting trigger at 24 hours rather than the federal 24-hour severe-injury rule under 1904.39.

Michigan’s MIOSHA and Washington’s DOSH both adopt the federal log with small reporting timing differences, and Oregon OSHA requires posting of Form 300A through April 30 just like federal. The consequence of using the federal version in a state-plan state is usually fine because the forms match, but the reporting triggers can differ, and missing a state’s faster trigger is a separate citation under that state’s law.

California Specifics

Cal/OSHA’s recordkeeping page makes clear that California adopts the federal forms but requires reporting of any serious injury, illness, or death within eight hours under Title 8 CCR 342. The state’s SB 606 law also creates a presumption of “enterprise-wide” violations for repeated written-policy failures, including recordkeeping policies.

The consequence in California is that one missed log entry, repeated across multiple sites, can become an enterprise-wide citation with penalties at every site. Jordan, a California restaurant group’s HR director, learned this when one missed needlestick log entry at one location turned into a multi-site enterprise-wide citation across all twelve restaurants.

New York and Public Sector

New York’s Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) program covers state and local government workplaces and uses the federal Form 300. Private-sector workplaces in New York remain under federal OSHA jurisdiction, so two New York employers across the street from each other might answer to different agencies for the same form.

The consequence of confusing the two is a misdirected report or a missed inspection response. A common misconception is that all New York employers report to the state, but only public-sector workplaces do, and the rest follow federal OSHA’s Region 2 office.

Mistakes to Avoid

The following recordkeeping mistakes show up on OSHA’s most common citation lists each year, drawn from the Top 10 Most Cited Standards. Each one carries a real penalty risk and a real safety blind spot.

• Calling a case “first aid” when a prescription medication was issued, even if unfilled, makes the entry wrong and the citation almost automatic.
• Counting only workdays instead of calendar days in Columns K and L produces an undercount that triggers a citation when an inspector recounts.
• Using “employee” or “worker” in Column C wastes the trend-spotting power of the form and slows down the safety team’s investigation.
• Skipping the privacy-case label on a sexual-assault or HIV-related entry exposes the worker and the employer to a privacy violation citation.
• Forgetting to update an old entry when new facts arrive, such as a return to lost-time after restricted duty, freezes the data at the wrong picture.
• Posting Form 300A only at corporate headquarters when the establishments are spread across multiple sites violates the per-site posting rule.
• Letting the safety manager sign Form 300A when no eligible executive is involved invalidates the certification and brings a separate citation.
• Tossing the records before the five-year retention ends leaves you defenseless during a later inspection or BLS survey.
• Missing the March 2 ITA submission deadline brings a citation even if your paper log is perfect.
• Disciplining a worker for a “late” injury report when the condition was gradual-onset is retaliation under 1904.35.
• Treating the federal form as the whole answer in a State Plan state ignores faster reporting triggers that come with their own penalties.

Do’s and Don’ts

The recordkeeping rule rewards accuracy, timeliness, and consistency, and punishes shortcuts. Use the following list as a quick gut-check before you finalize each entry.

Do

• Do log every recordable case within seven calendar days of learning of it, because 1904.29(b)(3) sets that deadline.
• Do match each Form 300 case to a Form 301 and a unique case number, because that paper trail wins inspections.
• Do update the log when new facts arrive, because 1904.33(b)(1) requires updates throughout retention.
• Do post Form 300A from February 1 through April 30, because the rule expects continuous visibility for employees.
• Do submit through the ITA by March 2 if you fall under the 2024 expansion, because public posting follows.

Don’t

• Don’t share a privacy-case worker’s name on the log, because 1904.29(b)(7) protects the worker.
• Don’t let a safety manager certify Form 300A, because the rule lists only four eligible signers.
• Don’t double-count the day of injury in Column K or L, because the count starts the day after the injury.
• Don’t treat the workers’ comp First Report as a free pass on Form 301, because the data fields must match exactly.
• Don’t run a “perfect attendance” or “zero injury” bonus that punishes reporting, because OSHA treats it as retaliation.

Pros and Cons of Treating Form 300 as a Living Safety Tool

Treating the log as a living safety tool, rather than a once-a-year compliance chore, changes the cost-benefit picture for any employer. The form is a free injury-trending dataset built on the company’s own workers, on the company’s own time.

Pros

• Pros include early pattern detection, because monthly review finds the second back strain before the third arrives.
• Pros include lower experience modification rates on workers’ comp premiums, because fewer claims mean a lower mod.
• Pros include better safety-prequalification scores on bids, because ISN and Avetta read your DART straight from the log.
• Pros include cleaner OSHA inspections, because an inspector who finds a tidy log moves on faster.
• Pros include stronger employee trust, because workers see that reports lead to fixes.

Cons

• Cons include the staff time it takes to investigate every recordable case, because each one needs a Form 301 too.
• Cons include the public visibility of your numbers through the ITA search tool, because customers and competitors can see them.
• Cons include the risk of a Site-Specific Targeting inspection if your DART rate is high.
• Cons include the legal complexity of privacy-case rules, because one wrong name on the log creates a separate violation.
• Cons include the five-year retention burden, because old records still need to be searchable and updateable.

Penalties and Enforcement in 2026

OSHA adjusts penalties for inflation every January, and the 2026 maximums sit at $16,550 per other-than-serious or serious violation, $16,550 per day for failure-to-abate beyond the abatement date, and $165,514 per willful or repeat violation. Recordkeeping violations are usually cited as other-than-serious, but each missing case can be a separate violation, so the totals add up fast.

The consequence of multiple missed cases is the per-violation stacking under 1903.15, and OSHA has issued six-figure recordkeeping citations against employers like the AKM LLC v. Secretary of Labor defendant Volks Constructors, which fought the five-year continuing-violation theory and partially won. After Volks, Congress passed the 2015 Recordkeeping NPRM, which OSHA later finalized to clarify the duty as continuing during the five-year retention window.

Recent Enforcement Examples

OSHA’s news releases regularly include recordkeeping citations stacked on top of hazard citations, especially in warehousing, meat processing, and construction. Linda, a meat-processing plant safety manager in Iowa, faced a $122,000 recordkeeping citation when an inspector found 14 unrecorded amputations and lacerations after a complaint inspection.

The consequence of stacking is that a single inspection can produce a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar bill that is mostly recordkeeping rather than the underlying hazard. A common misconception is that OSHA “always negotiates down,” but the Field Operations Manual sets strict ceilings on settlement reductions for willful and repeat violations.

FAQs

Is OSHA Form 300 required for every employer?

No. Employers with 10 or fewer employees company-wide and those in partially exempt industries are excused from routine recordkeeping but must still report fatalities and severe injuries.

Does a single prescription make a case recordable?

Yes. A single prescription medication, even if the worker never fills it, counts as medical treatment beyond first aid under 1904.7(b)(5)(ii), making the case recordable on Form 300.

Are weekends counted in Column K days away?

Yes. Column K and Column L count calendar days, including weekends, holidays, and any scheduled days off the worker would have had during the away or restricted period.

Can a safety manager sign Form 300A?

No. Only an owner, corporate officer, the highest-ranking company official at the establishment, or that official’s immediate supervisor may sign the certification on Form 300A.

Must I submit Form 300 data electronically?

Yes. If your establishment has 100 or more employees in a designated high-hazard industry, you must submit Form 300, 301, and 300A data through the ITA by March 2 each year.

Is COVID-19 still recordable in 2026?

Yes. Work-related COVID-19 cases meeting the recording criteria remain recordable under 1904.5, and OSHA’s COVID-19 guidance still applies to work-relatedness analysis.

Does a workers’ comp First Report replace Form 301?

No. A First Report only replaces Form 301 if it captures every Form 301 data field, including the time the employee began work and the time of the event, which most state forms do not.

Are independent contractors counted on the log?

No. Independent contractors who control their own work are not employees, but workers you supervise day-to-day, including many temporary workers from staffing agencies, are counted under the joint-employer guidance.

Can I keep the log electronically?

Yes. 1904.29(b)(2) permits an electronic equivalent so long as it contains the same information, can be produced when needed, and meets the access rules in 1904.35.

Must I show the log to an employee on request?

Yes. Current and former employees, their personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives have a right under 1904.35(b)(2) to see the log by the end of the next business day.

Are mental health conditions recordable?

Yes. A mental illness is recordable only when an employee voluntarily presents a licensed health care professional opinion that the condition is work-related, and the case is automatically a privacy concern case.

Do I have to keep the log for closed establishments?

Yes. When an establishment closes, the successor employer takes over retention, and if there is no successor the original employer keeps the records for the remainder of the five-year retention period.