Do You Need to Keep an OSHA 300 Log? Recordkeeping Exemptions for Small Employers

Most OSHA recordkeeping guides assume you already know you need to keep records. They walk you through how to fill out the 300 log, how to calculate the 300A, how to submit through the ITA portal. But there's a logically prior question that every small employer should answer before any of that matters: do I actually have to keep these records in the first place?

The answer for many small businesses is no — or at least, not all of them. OSHA's recordkeeping regulations include two distinct partial exemptions, one based on company size and one based on industry classification. Qualifying for either one frees you from routine recordkeeping. Understanding both rules takes about ten minutes, and the answer can save a small business meaningful administrative time every year.

The Two-Step Exemption Test

OSHA's recordkeeping framework has two ways to qualify for partial exemption from keeping the 300 log, the 300A annual summary, and the 301 incident report:

1. Size: Your company had ten or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year (29 CFR 1904.1).
2. Industry: Your establishment is classified in a NAICS code listed on Appendix A to Subpart B of 29 CFR Part 1904 (the "partially exempt industries" list).

You only need to qualify under one of these rules to be exempt. The two tests are independent of each other — a 300-employee accounting firm qualifies under the industry rule, and a five-person construction crew qualifies under the size rule.

The word "partial" matters here. Neither exemption gets you out of every OSHA recordkeeping obligation. It releases you from routine recordkeeping. Other duties remain in place regardless of size or industry, and the rest of this post explains what those are.

The 10-or-Fewer Employee Rule

The size exemption under 1904.1 has a few details that trip people up.

It is measured company-wide, not establishment-by-establishment. If your company has three locations with four employees each, you have twelve employees company-wide and the size exemption does not apply, even though no single location exceeds ten. OSHA's regulation is clear on this: "The partial exemption for size is based on the number of employees in the entire company."

It is based on peak employment during the previous calendar year. The test isn't your current headcount or your average over the year. It's the highest number of employees you had at any single point during the prior calendar year. If you employed eleven people for two weeks last July when you brought on seasonal help, you do not qualify for the size exemption this year — even if you're back down to nine employees today.

It counts all employees, full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary. There is no distinction by hours or classification. A part-time bookkeeper who worked eight hours a week last year counts the same as your full-time operations manager.

The size exemption is also fragile in a specific way: a single calendar year of crossing the threshold flips you into recordkeeping for the following year. A nine-employee landscaping business that hires two summer helpers in 2025 has to keep records starting January 1, 2026.

The Partially Exempt Industries List

The industry exemption under 1904.2 works differently. Instead of looking at size, it looks at what your establishment does. OSHA maintains a non-mandatory Appendix A to Subpart B of Part 1904 listing NAICS codes for industries with historically low injury and illness rates. Establishments classified in any code on that list are partially exempt from routine recordkeeping regardless of how many people they employ.

The list covers a wide range of industries readers will recognize:

• 4412 Other Motor Vehicle Dealers
• 4431 Electronics and Appliance Stores
• 4461 Health and Personal Care Stores
• 4471 Gasoline Stations
• 4481 Clothing Stores
• 5111 Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers
• 5411 Legal Services
• 5412 Accounting, Tax Preparation, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Services
• 5413 Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services
• 5511 Management of Companies and Enterprises
• 6116 Other Schools and Instruction
• 7224 Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages)
• 8121 Personal Care Services

That's a partial list. The full appendix is published on OSHA's website and includes several dozen four-digit NAICS codes.

A few important nuances:

The list is based on 2007 NAICS codes. NAICS is revised every five years, and a 2017 or 2022 reclassification of your industry doesn't strip your exemption. OSHA still uses the 2007 codes to determine whether the industry exemption applies. If your accountant tells you your modern NAICS code isn't on the list, check whether your 2007 code was.

The list was last substantively updated effective January 1, 2015. The current version reflects industry data from a 2009 rulemaking process. There is no scheduled update.

It applies to the establishment, not the company. This is where the multi-location trap shows up.

The Multi-Establishment Trap

The industry exemption is applied per establishment, not per company. An "establishment" in OSHA's framework is a single physical location where business is conducted.

Consider a 200-employee company with a corporate office (NAICS 5511, Management of Companies — exempt) and three retail bakeries (NAICS 311811, Retail Bakeries — not on the exempt list). The corporate office is exempt from routine recordkeeping. Each bakery must keep its own separate 300 log under 1904.30. The company maintains four sets of records: zero for the office, one for each bakery.

This is one of the most-misunderstood rules in the recordkeeping regulation. Companies that operate in mixed industries — a manufacturer with a retail outlet, a healthcare network with a billing office, a hospitality group with both restaurants and accounting services — often assume the corporate classification carries through to every location. It doesn't. Each location is evaluated on its own NAICS code.

The flip side is also true. A 50-employee company with one establishment in an exempt industry doesn't need to keep records for that establishment at all, regardless of its company-wide size.

What "Partially Exempt" Doesn't Get You Out Of

The exemption is from routine paperwork. It is not a general exemption from OSHA. Three obligations remain in place for every covered employer regardless of size or industry:

Severe-injury reporting under 1904.39. Every employer covered by the OSH Act must report to OSHA any work-related fatality within 8 hours, and any work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. This is non-negotiable. A four-person catering business in NAICS 7223 (also exempt) is just as obligated to report a kitchen amputation as a 5,000-employee manufacturer.

Recordkeeping on written request. OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics can require you to keep records by sending you a written notice under 1904.41 or 1904.42. The most common version is the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, which selects a sample of establishments each year — including some partially exempt ones — and requires participation. If you receive a written request, your exemption no longer applies for that period.

Compliance with every underlying OSHA standard. Exemption from recordkeeping does not exempt you from hazard communication, fall protection, lockout/tagout, PPE, machine guarding, electrical safety, or any other applicable OSHA standard. You still post the "Job Safety and Health: It's the Law" poster. You still comply with the General Duty Clause. The exemption is about paperwork on injuries and illnesses, not about workplace safety as a whole.

Crossing the Threshold Mid-Year

The size exemption works on a calendar-year lag. If your company grows past ten employees during a calendar year, the recordkeeping requirement starts the following January 1 — not immediately. The test is always "peak employment during the previous calendar year."

The same lag works in reverse, but with one important caveat. If your company contracts below ten employees, you can stop creating new entries on January 1 of the following year. However, the prior years' records still must be retained for the full retention period.

The Five-Year Retention Rule

Under 29 CFR 1904.33, OSHA recordkeeping forms must be retained for five years following the end of the calendar year the records cover. This applies even after you become exempt. A company that crossed below the size threshold and stopped creating new logs in 2026 must still retain its 2021–2025 logs through the end of 2030.

Discarding records early — even records you're no longer required to create — is itself a citable recordkeeping violation if an inspector asks to see them and you can't produce them. The retention obligation outlives the creation obligation by five years.

A 90-Second Decision Flow

When you sit down to determine whether you need to keep an OSHA 300 log this year, work through these questions in order:

1. Are you covered by the OSH Act? Almost every private-sector employer in the United States is. If you're in a state-plan state (California, Washington, Oregon, and others), your state's program may be more stringent but cannot be less.
2. Did your company have ten or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year? Count peak headcount, all classifications, company-wide. If yes, you're exempt from routine recordkeeping. If no, continue.
3. Is the establishment you're evaluating classified in a NAICS code on Appendix A to Subpart B? Look up the 2007 NAICS classification, not a more recent reclassification. If yes, that establishment is exempt. If no, the establishment must keep a 300 log.
4. Has OSHA or BLS sent you a written request for records? If yes, the exemption is overridden for that period.

If you came out exempt on both tests, you still report severe incidents under 1904.39, you still post the OSHA poster, you still comply with every applicable safety standard, and you still retain any prior records you created for the full five-year period.

If you came out not exempt, you're in the same recordkeeping framework as every other covered employer, and the rest of LogStead's recordkeeping guides apply to you.