TL;DR
OSHA requires three separate recordkeeping forms under 29 CFR 1904. Form 301 captures detailed information about a single incident. Form 300 is a running log of every recordable injury and illness at an establishment. Form 300A is the annual summary that must be posted from February 1 through April 30, even if you had zero incidents. Getting these forms wrong doesn’t just risk OSHA fines up to $16,550 per violation. It can inflate your TRIR and DART rates, damage your ISNetworld or Avetta scores, and cost you the ability to bid on work.
If OSHA recordkeeping is already a headache, OSHA recordkeeping services can help you get it right before it costs you a contract.
OSHA Forms 300 vs 301 vs 300A: Quick Summary
OSHA Form 301 (Incident Report): Documents specific details of a single work-related incident within 7 calendar days.
OSHA Form 300 (Log): An ongoing log tracking every recordable injury and illness per establishment within 7 calendar days.
OSHA Form 300A (Summary): Aggregate annual data that must be posted publicly from Feb 1 to Apr 30, even if zero incidents occurred.
2026 Deadlines & Penalty Limits: Form 300A must be posted Feb 1–Apr 30, with electronic submission due March 2, 2026 via OSHA’s ITA. Maximum penalties for non-compliance are up to $16,550 per serious violation and up to $165,514 for willful or repeated violations.
What Are OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301?
OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301 are three distinct but interconnected recordkeeping instruments required under 29 CFR 1904. Every employer covered by OSHA’s recordkeeping standard must maintain all three. They serve different purposes, contain different levels of detail, and follow different rules for completion, retention, and disclosure. Confusing one for another, or missing one entirely, is one of the fastest ways to draw a citation or disqualify yourself from a bid.
The simplest way to understand OSHA 300 vs 301 vs 300A is to think about scope. The 301 zooms in on a single incident. The 300 tracks all recordable incidents across a calendar year. The 300A zooms out to show annual totals for anyone who walks through the door.
Form 300: Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
What It Is
OSHA Form 300 is the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. It functions as a running spreadsheet for each establishment, with one line per recordable case. Every qualifying injury or illness gets a row that captures the employee’s name, job title, date of injury, a brief description, and the outcome (days away from work, restricted duty, medical treatment, etc.).
What Gets Recorded
Not every workplace injury goes on the 300 log. You record only incidents that meet OSHA’s definition of a recordable case:
Work-related fatalities
Injuries or illnesses involving days away from work
Restricted work activity or job transfer
Loss of consciousness
Medical treatment beyond first aid
Certain diagnosed conditions like fractures, punctured eardrums, and chronic illnesses
The distinction between first aid and medical treatment trips up many employers. Practitioners on safety forums frequently point out that over-recording, logging every reported incident regardless of whether it meets the threshold, is just as common as under-recording. Both errors distort your incident rates.
Timing
Each recordable case must be entered on the OSHA 300 log within seven calendar days of receiving information that the incident occurred. That’s calendar days, not business days.
Per-Establishment Requirement
You maintain a separate Form 300 for each physical establishment or jobsite. For construction companies running multiple projects simultaneously, this means multiple active logs. The requirement is based on the specific location, not your corporate headquarters.
Is It OSHA Recordable? (3-Step Checklist)
Work-Relatedness: Did the event or exposure occur in the work environment or was it caused/aggravated by work tasks?
New Case: Is the condition a new injury/illness or a pre-existing condition significantly aggravated by work activity?
General Criteria Met: Did the case result in any of the following?
Death or loss of consciousness
Days away from work, job transfer, or restricted work duty
Medical treatment beyond standard first aid
Significant injury or illness diagnosed by a licensed healthcare professional
If you answered YES to all three steps, the case must be entered on both Form 300 and Form 301 within 7 calendar days.
Privacy Cases
For certain sensitive injuries, including those involving intimate body parts, sexual assaults, mental illnesses, HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and needlestick injuries, you must write “privacy concern case” instead of the employee’s name. A separate confidential list cross-references those case numbers to actual names. This privacy case list requirement is one of the most overlooked details in OSHA recordkeeping, and failing to maintain it is a citable offense.
Form 300A: Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
What It Is
OSHA Form 300A is the annual summary. It condenses everything from your Form 300 log into aggregate totals: the number of cases, the number of days away or restricted, the types of injuries and illnesses, the average number of employees, and total hours worked during the year.
Posting Requirement
By law, every covered employer must post the completed 300A summary in a conspicuous location where employees can see it from February 1 through April 30. This is the only one of the three forms that must be displayed publicly in the workplace.
A common mistake is posting the entire 300 log instead of the 300A summary. The log contains employee names and case details. Posting it unnecessarily risks privacy violations. Post only the 300A.
Zero-Incident Rule
Even if your company had no recordable injuries or illnesses during the entire calendar year, you must still complete and post the 300A with zeroes filled in. “Nothing happened” is not an excuse to skip the form.
Executive Certification
A company executive must certify the accuracy of the 300A. OSHA expects this to be an officer of the company or someone with an ownership stake, not the branch manager or safety coordinator. Missing this signature is a surprisingly frequent citation trigger. If your company doesn’t have a clear understanding of OSHA compliance obligations, this is exactly the kind of detail that gets missed.
Why It Matters Beyond Compliance
The data on the 300A, specifically average employees and total hours worked, feeds directly into your Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) and Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate calculations. Those rates flow into ISNetworld, Avetta, and every general contractor prequalification questionnaire you fill out. An inaccurate 300A doesn’t just create OSHA exposure. It creates rates that either inflate your risk profile (costing you bids) or understate your incidents (inviting fraud allegations).
Form 301: Injury and Illness Incident Report
What It Is
OSHA Form 301 is the Injury and Illness Incident Report. While the 300 log gives one line per case, the 301 provides the full story: who was injured, what they were doing, how it happened, what object or substance was involved, and what medical treatment was provided.
What It Captures
The form requires:
Employee identifying information
Healthcare professional and facility details
Date, time, and location of the incident
A narrative description of how the injury or illness occurred
Classification of the injury or illness type
Workers’ Comp Equivalents Are Allowed
Many employers use their workers’ compensation first report of injury as a substitute for the 301, and OSHA permits this. The key requirement is that the equivalent form must contain the same information, be equally readable, and be completed using the same instructions as the OSHA 301. If your insurance form doesn’t capture every field OSHA requires, you need to supplement it.
Not an Admission of Fault
Completing a Form 301 does not indicate that the employer is liable, non-compliant, or at fault. It is a standardized data collection tool, nothing more. Some employers hesitate to fill out the 301 out of legal concern, but failing to complete it within seven calendar days is itself a recordable violation.
Timing
Like the 300 log, each 301 must be completed within seven calendar days of learning about the recordable incident.
How the Three Forms Work Together
The workflow is straightforward:
Form 301 (detail) → Form 300 (log) → Form 300A (summary)
When an incident occurs, you first complete the 301 to document the specifics. You then add a line entry to the 300 log for that establishment. At the end of the calendar year, you total up the 300 log data and transfer the aggregates to the 300A summary for posting and, where required, electronic submission.
How 300A Data Impacts Your TRIR and DART Rates
The numbers recorded on your Form 300A feed directly into the safety metrics evaluated by general contractors, ISNetworld, and Avetta. These metrics determine your bidding eligibility and prequalification status:
Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR): Measures the rate of recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers.
Formula: (Total Recordable Cases x 200,000) / Total Hours Worked
Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) Rate: Measures cases that resulted in lost time or job modifications.
Formula: (Total DART Cases x 200,000) / Total Hours Worked
Over-recording non-recordable first-aid cases inflates your TRIR and DART rates, making your establishment look higher-risk to prospective clients and costing you contract opportunities.
Side-by-Side Comparison: OSHA 300 vs 300A vs 301
Feature | Form 300 | Form 300A | Form 301 |
Primary Scope | Log of all establishment incidents | Annual aggregate summary | Detailed single-incident report |
Completion Timeline | Within 7 calendar days | End of calendar year | Within 7 calendar days |
Public Posting? | No (Internal & Confidential) | Yes (Feb 1 – Apr 30) | No (Internal & Confidential) |
Contains Names? | Yes (Except Privacy Cases) | No | Yes |
Electronic Reporting | 100+ employees (Appendix B) | 20+ employees (listed industries) | 100+ employees (Appendix B) |
Retention Period | 5 Years | 5 Years | 5 Years |
Who Must Keep These Records
Size Exemption
Businesses with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year are generally exempt from routine OSHA 300, 301, and 300A recordkeeping. But “at all times” is the operative phrase. If you ever had more than 10 workers on the payroll at any point during the previous year, even temporarily, the exemption does not apply.
This catches construction companies constantly. Seasonal labor, temporary workers brought on for a single project, and subcontracted crews can push you over the threshold without anyone in the office realizing it. Smaller employers who recently crossed that 10-employee line often discover they’ve been operating without required logs for months.
Industry Exemption
Certain low-hazard industries classified under specific NAICS codes are exempt from routine recordkeeping. Construction is not on the exempt list. If you build things for a living, you keep these forms.
Universal Reporting Still Applies
Regardless of size or industry exemption, every employer must report:
Work-related fatalities within 8 hours
In-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye within 24 hours
These reporting obligations exist even if you are otherwise exempt from maintaining the 300 log. If you’re unsure whether your company is covered, check whether your safety manual meets OSHA requirements.
Key Deadlines
Deadline | Action |
|---|---|
Within 7 calendar days | Record each incident on Forms 300 and 301 |
By February 1 | Complete and certify Form 300A; begin posting |
February 1 through April 30 | Display Form 300A in a visible workplace location |
January 2 through March 2 | Electronic submission window via OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (for covered employers) |
Electronic Submission Requirements
This is the area where the rules have changed most recently, and where many employers are behind.
OSHA’s final electronic recordkeeping rule expanded submission requirements significantly. Three tiers now exist:
Tier 1: Employers with 20 to 249 employees in industries listed in Appendix A must submit Form 300A data annually through the OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA).
Tier 2: Employers with 250 or more employees who are required to keep records must also submit Form 300A annually.
Tier 3: Establishments with 100 or more employees in industries listed in Appendix B must submit all three forms, 300, 301, and 300A, annually.
Important Details
The employee count is based on the number of employees at a specific physical location, not total company headcount. A multi-site contractor with 200 total employees but only 40 at any given establishment falls into a different tier than one with 120 at a single site.
The electronic submission deadline for calendar-year 2025 data is March 2, 2026.
OSHA has stated it will publish data from electronic submissions on a public website, with personal identifying information removed. This means your injury and illness data will be accessible to competitors, clients, and the general public.
What Happens When You Get It Wrong
OSHA Penalties
The financial consequences of recordkeeping violations are straightforward. As of 2026, OSHA penalty limits stand at up to $16,550 per serious or other-than-serious violation and up to $165,514 per willful or repeated violation. Penalties are assessed per incident. If your facility failed to properly record two separate workplace injuries, that’s two violations, potentially $33,100 in fines before you even discuss the underlying safety issue.
The Bigger Cost: Losing Bids
For contractors and subcontractors, the fine is often the smaller problem. General contractors use your TRIR and DART rates, which are calculated directly from Form 300 log data, to determine who is eligible to bid. Safety consultants consistently report that inaccurate logs disqualify contractors from work more often than most people realize.
Your ISNetworld profile pulls incident rate data that traces back to these forms. Avetta does the same. If your 300 log is inaccurate, your rates are wrong, and your prequalification scores suffer. Over-recording inflates your rates and makes you look riskier than you are. Under-recording creates liability if audited.
Getting recordkeeping right isn’t about paperwork for its own sake. It’s about protecting your ability to win contracts. For a deeper look at how this calculates out financially, see evaluating safety’s return on investment.
Common Recordkeeping Mistakes
1. Misclassifying Work Restrictions
The single most common error is misunderstanding what counts as an OSHA-recordable work restriction. If an employee is assigned modified duty that limits any of the routine functions of their job, that’s a restriction, even if they’re still working full shifts. Many employers mistakenly think “light duty” doesn’t count.
2. Over-Recording
Including every reported injury on the 300 log, regardless of whether it meets the recordable threshold, inflates your incident rates. A workplace first-aid case (cleaning and bandaging a minor cut, for example) does not belong on the log. Over-recording leads companies to believe their rates are higher than they actually are, which hurts prequalification scores.
3. Counting Workdays Instead of Calendar Days
When tracking days away from work or days of restricted activity, OSHA requires you to count calendar days, not scheduled workdays. If an employee is out from Friday through Monday, that’s four days, not one. This counting error is widespread and directly distorts DART rate calculations.
4. Posting the Wrong Form
The 300A summary is the only form that gets posted. Posting the full 300 log exposes employee names and medical details, creating potential privacy violations. Only the current year’s summary should be posted.
5. Missing Executive Certification
The 300A must be certified by a company executive or owner, not a safety manager or branch supervisor. OSHA is specific about this, and the absence of a proper signature is a frequently cited violation.
6. Not Maintaining a Log When Required
Some employers simply don’t keep a 300 log because they assume they’re exempt. As noted earlier, crossing the 10-employee threshold at any point during the prior year, even briefly, triggers the requirement. Making sure the right person is trained on recordkeeping obligations prevents this gap.
7. Forgetting the Privacy Case List
When you enter “privacy concern case” instead of an employee’s name on the 300 log, you must maintain a separate confidential list that links case numbers to actual names. Many employers remember to redact the name but forget to create the cross-reference list, which is itself a requirement under 29 CFR 1904.29(b)(6).
Privacy Cases: What They Are and How to Handle Them
Privacy concern cases require special treatment on the OSHA 300 log. For the following types of incidents, you must omit the employee’s name and enter “privacy concern case” instead:
Injuries to intimate body parts or the reproductive system
Sexual assaults
Mental illnesses
HIV infection, hepatitis, or tuberculosis
Needlestick injuries and cuts from sharp objects contaminated with another person’s blood
Other illnesses where the employee independently requests that their name not be entered
You then maintain a separate, confidential list that matches the case number on the log to the employee’s actual name. This list must be retained for the same five-year period as the log itself and must be available to OSHA upon request.
Recordability determinations for illnesses, including when work-relatedness gets complicated, sometimes overlap with privacy case requirements. Getting both right simultaneously requires attention to detail.
Retention Requirements
All three forms, along with the privacy case list if one exists, must be retained for five years following the end of the calendar year they cover. During that retention period, you are required to update the 300 log if previously recorded cases change in severity or classification.
If an employee who was on restricted duty in March eventually required surgery in November, you update the original log entry. The five-year retention clock does not restart when you make updates.
When to Get Help
OSHA recordkeeping looks simple until you’re staring at a borderline case at 4:00 PM on a Friday, trying to decide whether it’s recordable while also wondering if your electronic submission is due next week. Many companies, especially those without a dedicated safety professional, find that recordkeeping is the compliance task most likely to fall through the cracks.
If you already received a citation for recordkeeping deficiencies, this guide walks through the response process.
For ongoing support with OSHA 300 logs, 300A summaries, 301 reports, electronic submissions, and rate calculations, ESR’s OSHA recordkeeping services cover the full scope of what’s required so you can focus on running your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between OSHA Form 300 and 300A?
Form 300 is the detailed log listing every individual recordable injury and illness, one line per case. Form 300A is the annual summary that totals up the log data into aggregate numbers. The 300 stays internal. The 300A gets posted publicly in the workplace from February 1 through April 30.
Can I use a workers’ comp form instead of OSHA Form 301?
Yes. OSHA allows equivalent forms as long as they contain the same information, follow the same instructions, and are equally readable. Most workers’ compensation first reports of injury qualify, but if any OSHA-required fields are missing, you must supplement the form.
Do I need to post the 300A if we had zero injuries?
Yes. Employers who are required to maintain recordkeeping logs must complete and post the 300A summary even if no recordable injuries or illnesses occurred during the year. Fill in the zeroes and post it.
How long do I have to keep OSHA 300, 300A, and 301 forms?
Five years following the end of the calendar year the forms cover. During that period, you must also update the log if the status of any recorded case changes.
Who needs to sign the 300A?
A company executive, defined as an owner, officer, or highest-ranking official at the establishment, must certify the document. A safety manager’s or HR generalist’s signature does not meet the requirement.
Does the 10-employee exemption apply to construction companies?
It can, but only if your total headcount stayed at 10 or fewer at all times during the previous calendar year. Hiring seasonal workers, temps, or additional crews for even one project can push you over the threshold and eliminate the exemption. Construction is not on the industry exemption list, so the size exemption is the only potential out.
What are the penalties for OSHA recordkeeping violations in 2025?
Up to $16,550 per serious or other-than-serious violation and up to $165,514 per willful or repeated violation. Penalties stack per incident, so multiple missing log entries mean multiple fines.
How does my OSHA 300 log affect ISNetworld and Avetta?
The data on your 300 log determines your TRIR and DART rates. Those rates are submitted (or pulled directly) into contractor prequalification platforms like ISNetworld and Avetta. Inaccurate logs produce inaccurate rates, which can either inflate your risk profile and cost you bids, or understate your incidents and create audit liability. For help with prequalification platforms specifically, see ISNetworld help for contractors.