by the Brightmine Editorial Team
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) is promoted and enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which covers most employers either directly through OSHA or through an OSHA-approved State Plan. An OSHA-approved State Plan is an OSHA-approved job safety and health program operated by an individual state and must be at least as effective as the federal OSHA program.
The standards under a State Plan may differ from federal OSHA regulations, but they must be at least as effective as the federal standards. States have the option to establish additional standards covering safety and health hazards not addressed by federal standards.
Currently, there are 21 states with State Plans that cover private employers while five additional states have State Plans that only cover state and local government employees.
The following chart shows whether a state has an OSHA-approved State Plan.
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About the author
The Brightmine Editorial Team
Our in-house team of HR experts carefully monitors and updates the Brightmine HR & Compliance Center, the most comprehensive library of employment law and HR resources. This team has an unrivaled wealth of subject matter expertise, with an average of 15 years’ experience. They also bring invaluable, diverse career experiences to the table—the team includes seasoned employment law attorneys, former in-house counsel, SHRM certified professionals and career employment law editors.
In addition to managing the HR & Compliance Center, the Editorial Team supports the content across the Brightmine product portfolio. The Team also supports Marketing Resource Center with breaking HR news, Commentary and Insights, and expert review of key compliance resources, such as our free charts.