Twenty Years of OSHA Federal Enforcement Data. A Review and Explanation of theMajor Trends

摘要

The purpose of the paper is to explain the major changes that have occurredduring the past 20 years in OSHA's federal enforcement data. A cursory review of the data shows great swings in the number and type of inspections conducted, the industrial distribution of inspections, the number and type of violations and the dollar amount of proposed penalties. It is important that policy-makers and researchers who use the data to describe/evaluate the enforcement program understand the reasons for these fluctuations. The analysis is limited to the federal component of OSHA, and does not address criminal violations or penalties, which have historically been an extremely small part of the enforcement program.