The sad decline in Cal/OSHA’s worker protection

Of the 21 states (and Puerto Rico) who run their own OSHA programs, CalOSHA is often held up as the model that other states should imitate because the state has several important standards that federal OSHA and few states have: heat, ergonomics, airborne infectious diseases and workplace violence to name just a few,

While many employers will comply with OSHA standards because they’re the law and they care about their employees’ health and safety, far too many others only comply because they’re afraid of being penalized if found to be out of compliance.  And for those, standards are only as good as the state’s ability to enforce them.

And that’s where CalOSHA runs into problems.

Former CalOSHA inspector and Special Assistant to the Chief of Cal/OSHA Garrett Brown describes below the problems that CalOSHA enforcement is experiencing and the toll that takes on working people in the state.

The 2025 California State Audit of Cal/OSHA contained a shocking and deeply disappointing revelation: the state worker protection agency investigated only 17% of worker complaints in fiscal year 2023-24.

Overall, Cal/OSHA conducts on-site inspections less than half the time for all types of enforcement activity.  Instead of site visits, Cal/OSHA merely sends a letter to employers so that they can “self-inspect” and report their conclusions back to Cal/OSHA.  These “letter investigations” now account for 60% of Cal/OSHA enforcement actions.

The current under-50% on-site inspections contrasts sharply with Cal/OSHA’s activity thirty years ago when 75% of enforcement actions were actual visits to work sites by Cal/OSHA inspectors.

The net result of this drop-off of genuine enforcement actions – primarily caused by crippling inspector vacancies, chronic understaffing, and failure to effectively utilize all available financial resources – has meant that worker protections in California are weaker than ever.  As documented by a constant stream of news media reports, both old and new regulations cannot be effectively enforced, and worker populations like immigrants in agriculture, artificial stone manufacturers, and numerous other industries are especially vulnerable.

State Audit Findings

In July 2025, the California State Auditor issued its Report 2024-115 summarizing the audit of five years of Cal/OSHA enforcement activity.  For the last year of the study – state fiscal year 2023-24 — from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 – the State Auditors reported the following activity by Cal/OSHA in response to worker complaints and employer reports of serious injuries and fatalities:

• 13% of worker complaints were invalidated
• 82% of validated complaints were responded to with a letter investigation
• 17% of validated complaints had an on-site inspection
• 42% of employer accident reports were responded to with an on-site inspection
• 58% of employer accident reports (including those with injuries) were responded to with a letter investigation

That means that a worker filing a complaint that year had less than one chance in five that it would result in an on-site inspection by Cal/OSHA compliance safety and health officers.  Even with employer-reported serious injuries and deaths, on-site inspections occurred less than half the time.

Cal/OSHA’s ability to identify and correct hazardous conditions, and to determine the cause of injury accidents – in order to serve as an effective deterrent to preventable worker exposures and incidents — has been severely compromised.

If an enforcement agency is to be effective in preventing incidents – and not just reacting after someone is injured or killed —  it needs to deter employers from breaking the law and endangering workers.

But deterrence is a function of two factors: the likelihood that you will be caught, and the penalty for getting caught breaking the law.  While Cal/OSHA’s average penalties per violation are on average higher than other state plans, high penalties don’t deter much if it’s very unlikely an OSHA inspector will ever appear in your workplace.

Letter investigations continue to dominate Cal/OSHA activity

Unfortunately, the latest available inspection data released by the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), Cal/OSHA’s parent agency, shows that on-site inspections continue to make up less than 50% of Cal/OSHA’s activity.

Cal/OSHA Response to All Types of Enforcement Activity;

Including worker complaints, employer accident reports, programmed inspections, referrals, and follow-up inspections

Data from the Federal OSHA OIS System of DOSH activity entered into the Federal database by Cal/OSHA District Offices, generated on October 28, 2025.

The sad news is that the lack of worker protection, and the lack of an effective deterrent for irresponsible employers, continues unabated two years after the end of the audit period.

A decline from the historical record

The current low level of onsite inspection contrasts sharply with the levels that Cal/OSHA achieved over the past 30 years.

Data from the Federal OSHA OIS System of DOSH activity entered into the Federal database by Cal/OSHA District Offices, generated on July 13, 2022.

Cal/OSHA’s total activity was lower in the previous decades, but so were the number of field inspector positions.

Citations for violations of state law drop sharply

In addition to conducting on-site inspections less than 45% of the time, Cal/OSHA has experienced a dramatic decline in the issuance of fewer citations issued to correct unsafe and unhealthy conditions

Cal/OSHA data for the first nine months of 2025 – the latest stats available – shows that the number of on-site inspections increased 5% over the previous year, but the number of citations for unsafe conditions and violations of state law plummeted in 2025.

Comparing the first three quarters of 2025 to the same period in 2024:

• Agriculture citations were down 14%;
• Construction citations were down 25%
• Waste management citations were down 28%
• Manufacturing citations were down 37%
• Transportation and warehousing citations were down 50%
• Health care and social assistance citations were down 53%

The decline in citations issued means a commensurate drop in civil penalties assessed, undermining the deterrent impact of Cal/OSHA’s enforcement efforts.  Again, high penalties can present a strong deterrent, but the deterrent effect is weakened  if the number of citations and penalties declines.

Enforcement budget cut undermines efforts to improve

Cal/OSHA’s Enforcement budget for the current fiscal year 2025-26 was slashed by $16 million – adding under-funding to under-staffing for the beleaguered worker safety agency.  Governor Gavin Newsom – taking a page from President Trump’s playbook – proposed a $21 million cut for worker protection enforcement, and the Democratic Legislature approved a $16 million reduction.

There is no fiscal reason requiring this budget cutback.  Cal/OSHA is financed by a completely independent fund which receives no state revenues, and which has run $200 million surpluses in the last three fiscal years.

Workload study calls for 50 more field inspectors

Six years ago, DIR contracted with the CPS HR Consulting firm to conduct a study of Cal/OSHA inspectors’ workload and to recommend a staffing level to meet that load.  In their July 2020 report, the consulting company concluded that 328 inspectors were needed to effectively perform the agency’s work.  In January 2026, Cal/OSHA has 288 CSHO positions.

Given Governor Newsom’s current cut to Cal/OSHA’s enforcement budget – and proposed 2026-27 cuts despite a $200 million surplus in the agency’s primary revenue fund – make adding the recommended 40 field inspectors impossible.

Chronic CSHO vacancies have generated tremendous pressure on District Managers and CSHOs themselves to “open and close, open and close, open and close” as many perfunctory inspections as possible to keep up with the steady incoming flow of worker complaints and employer accident reports.

California’s worker H&S protections dramatically lower than neighboring states

The standard measure of worker health and safety protection agencies internationally is the ratio of inspectors to workers.  The International Labor Organization (ILO) recommends a ratio of 1 inspector to 15,000 workers for advanced industrial countries.

The state of Washington has a ratio of 1 inspector to 28,000 workers, while the state of Oregon has a ratio of 1 inspector to 23,000 workers.  This state data comes from the April 2025 “Death on the Job” report issued by the AFL-CIO.  The hand count of Cal/OSHA positions on the latest available DOSH Organization Chart documents a ratio in California of 1 inspector to 99,000 workers.

Don’t the workers of California deserve the same level of protection that workers in Oregon and Washington state enjoy?

Regulations without actual enforcement are meaningless

As discussed above, California has the reputation of having the most protective workplace health and safety regulations in the nation.  On paper, that is certainly true compared to Federal OSHA and many states with their own OSHA programs.

But if the agency required to effectively enforce these regulations, respond to worker complaints, and investigate employer reports of injuries and deaths cannot meet either its legal mandates or its mission, then California’s bragging rights are meaningless and are but a cruel joke for sick and injured workers.

It is entirely the employers’ responsibility to have a safe and healthy workplaces that will not poison, kill or maim their employees.  But in the real world, effective government enforcement agencies are essential to hold irresponsible employers accountable, to be an effective deterrent to employers considering risking their workers’ health and safety, and to motivate all employers to meet their legal and moral responsibilities.

Sadly, today Cal/OSHA is not such an agency.