The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established in 1971 with a mandate to set and enforce safe working conditions and prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Since its founding, OSHA has helped reduce workplace fatalities by more than 60%, while workplace injury and illness rates have fallen by over 40%. A central driver of these improvements is OSHA’s injury and illness recordkeeping system — and the three forms at the heart of that system: OSHA Form 300, OSHA Form 300A, and OSHA Form 301.

Each form serves a distinct purpose within OSHA’s recordkeeping framework under 29 CFR Part 1904. Understanding the differences — and how the three forms work together — is essential for EHS managers, safety directors, and compliance officers responsible for maintaining accurate records, meeting reporting deadlines, and demonstrating regulatory audit readiness. In this article, we explain the purpose of each form, when completion is required, and how they connect as part of a complete workplace injury and illness recordkeeping program.

OSHA 301 Form

The OSHA Form 301 — Injury and Illness Incident Report — is used to document the details of any recordable and/or reportable work-related injury or illness. Under OSHA’s recordkeeping rule (29 CFR Part 1904), the terms “recordable” and “reportable” have specific meanings: not every workplace injury requires OSHA notification, but many require documentation. OSHA defines specific recording and reporting criteria that determine when a Form 301 must be completed. An OSHA 301 report must be completed for any recordable injury or illness that results in:

• Death,
• Loss of consciousness,
• Restricted work activity or transfer to another job,
• Days away from work,
• Medical treatment beyond first aid,
• A significant injury or illness as diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health-care professional,
• Needlestick and sharps injuries,
• Medical removal of an employee,
• Work-related hearing loss, or
• Work-related tuberculosis.

Employers must also complete an OSHA 301 report if the recordable event involves:

• Cancer,
• Chronic irreversible disease,
• A fractured or cracked bone,
• Punctured eardrum,
• Respiratory condition, or
• Poisoning.

Beyond mandatory compliance, OSHA Form 301 serves as the foundational incident record for safety performance improvement. EHS managers use 301 data to support root cause analysis, identify recurring hazard patterns, track corrective action implementation, and build the evidence base for ongoing safety improvements across operations.

Completing an OSHA 301 report does not indicate that an employer is liable, non-compliant, or at fault — it is simply the standardized process for capturing incident details to support OSHA 300 and 300A reporting requirements and continuous safety performance improvement programs.

Employers must complete an OSHA 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report within seven (7) calendar days of any recordable incident. The report must include descriptions of the affected individual, healthcare professional information, the type of recordable work-related injury or illness, and a detailed account of how the incident occurred. Completed OSHA 301 reports must be retained on file for five (5) years following the end of the calendar year in which the injury, illness, or incident occurred — and must be made available to authorized OSHA representatives upon request.

OSHA 300 Form

The OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses is the running record of all reportable work-related injuries and illnesses for a given establishment during a calendar year. It classifies each incident by injury or illness type and documents the extent and severity of each case. Employers must complete an entry in the OSHA 300 Log if a work-related injury, incident, or illness involves any of:

• Death,
• Loss of consciousness,
• Restricted work activity or transfer to another job,
• Days away from work,
• Medical treatment beyond first aid,
• A significant injury or illness as diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional,
• Needlestick and sharps injuries,
• Medical removal of an employee,
• Work-related hearing loss, or
• Work-related tuberculosis.

A key requirement under 29 CFR 1904.30: employers must maintain a separate OSHA 300 Log for each of their establishments or work sites. Organizations operating across multiple locations cannot consolidate incidents into a single company-wide log — each site must maintain its own record. This is a common compliance gap for multi-site organizations, and one that OSHA inspectors frequently identify during recordkeeping audits.

Specific data elements required on the OSHA 300 Log include:

• Employee name (unless a ‘privacy case’ under 29 CFR 1904.29)
• A unique case number
• The employee’s job title
• The type of injury or illness sustained
• Number of days away from work
• Details of the incident (where it occurred and how)
• The classification of the injury or illness type

Employers have a severe injury reporting obligation under 29 CFR 1904.39: OSHA must be notified within eight (8) hours if a work-related incident results in the death of any employee, or within 24 hours if it results in the in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees, the amputation of a body part, or the loss of an eye. These notifications must be made directly to OSHA — via phone to the nearest OSHA office, or through OSHA’s online reporting portal — and are separate from Form 300 recordkeeping obligations.

OSHA 300A Form

The OSHA Form 300A — Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses — is an annual summary of all recordable injury and illness totals recorded on the OSHA 300 Log during the prior calendar year. While the 300 Log captures the details of individual incidents and the employees involved, the 300A provides aggregate totals by injury and illness category, along with establishment-level business information.

Key data elements required on the OSHA 300A include: total number of recordable cases, DART cases (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred), total days away from work, total days of restricted work activity or job transfer, a breakdown of injury and illness types, and business information including establishment name, address, industry classification (NAICS code), and annual average number of employees and total hours worked (used to calculate TRIR and DART rates).

Employers must post the OSHA 300A Summary in a visible location accessible to all employees — such as a breakroom, common area, or safety bulletin board — for a minimum period of three months, from February 1st through April 30th each year, covering recordable events from the previous calendar year. The 300A must be certified by a company executive. Like the 300 Log and 301 forms, completed 300A summaries must be retained for five years.

Which Forms are Required to be Submitted to OSHA?

Not all employers are required to submit OSHA recordkeeping forms electronically — but many are. Under OSHA’s Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses rule (29 CFR 1904.41), electronic submission requirements depend on company size and industry:

Establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by OSHA recordkeeping requirements must submit their OSHA 300 Log data and 300A Summary electronically each year via OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA). These submissions must not include personally identifiable information such as employee names, addresses, or medical professional details.

Establishments with 20 to 249 employees in designated high-risk industries — including construction, manufacturing, warehousing, agriculture, and utilities — must submit their OSHA 300A Summary data electronically to OSHA annually.

All covered employers, regardless of submission requirements, must maintain completed OSHA 300, 300A, and 301 records on-site and make them available to OSHA representatives, employees, and authorized employee representatives upon request.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between OSHA 300 and OSHA 301?

The OSHA 300 Log is a cumulative record of all recordable work-related injuries and illnesses at a given establishment for the calendar year. The OSHA 301 is an individual incident report — a detailed account of a single recordable event. Every entry on the OSHA 300 Log should have a corresponding OSHA 301 Incident Report (or equivalent first report of injury form) on file.

What is the deadline for completing an OSHA 301?

An OSHA 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report must be completed within seven (7) calendar days of a recordable work-related injury or illness occurring. Delays in completion create compliance risk and undermine the quality of the incident data available for root cause analysis and corrective action.

Who needs to sign the OSHA 300A?

The OSHA 300A Summary must be certified by a company executive — defined by OSHA as an owner, officer of the corporation, the highest-ranking company official working at the establishment, or the immediate supervisor of the highest-ranking official. The certifying official attests that the summary is accurate and complete to the best of their knowledge.

Are small businesses exempt from OSHA recordkeeping requirements?

Employers with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year are generally exempt from OSHA’s routine injury and illness recordkeeping requirements under 29 CFR Part 1904 — but they are still required to report severe injuries (fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations, and eye losses) to OSHA. Certain low-hazard industries are also partially exempt from routine recordkeeping regardless of size. However, all covered employers — including those that are partially exempt — must comply with OSHA’s severe injury reporting requirements.

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