What's the Difference Between OSHA Standards For Construction?

OSHA standards are the rules that most employers in the U.S. must follow to protect their workers from safety and health hazards. For many workers and employers, completing an OSHA 10-Hour or OSHA 30-Hour course, tailored to either Construction or General Industry, is a key step toward understanding and complying with these standards. But one of the most confusing aspects of determining which standards apply in any given situation is the question of “industry.”

Below, we’ll explain the different OSHA industries, why they exist, who they apply to, and the differences in the safety and health standards that apply.

What Are the Four OSHA Industries?

OSHA standards are divided into four “industries”:

• General Industry
• Construction
• Agriculture
• Maritime

The use of the term “industry” is somewhat misleading since some categories are catchalls for multiple industries, but it’s the language OSHA uses. Workers in Construction and General Industry settings can meet OSHA training requirements by completing an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 course tailored to their industry.

Why Are OSHA Standards Different for Some Industries?

First and foremost, a few industries have different safety rules because they’re subject to other agencies, instead. Mining, aviation, nuclear energy, and marine vessels all have separate agencies that take primary responsibility for worker safety and health. OSHA rules still apply in these industries, but many safety standards are overridden or supplemented with agency-specific ones and enforcement is mostly out of their hands.

As for the rest, OSHA tries to apply the same standards to the whole American workforce (referred to as “General Industry”) whenever possible, but sometimes the unique nature of the working conditions in an industry calls for something different.

For example, the bathroom rules for most workplaces aren't practical for people working in the fields during a harvest, so agriculture has its own sanitation facility requirements.

Many of OSHA’s safety standards for construction work are unique because the construction industry operates under a set of unique conditions. There are unique hazards, but there are also working conditions that require adaptation. For example, most construction work sites are temporary in nature, and most employers are small to medium businesses (SMBs).

Similarly, the maritime industry has both unique hazards and specific working conditions that call for separate rules. In fact, different areas of maritime work are distinct enough from one another that OSHA further subdivides into the subcategories of Shipyards, Marine Terminals, and Longshoring.

Where Do You Find the OSHA Standards for Each Industry?

All of OSHA’s standards can be found under Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (often shortened to 29 CFR). Title 29 is divided into many different “parts,” each of which has its own purpose. For example, Part 24 lays out the rules for a state to take over regulation and enforcement of its own safety and health administration under something called a state plan.

The standards for various industries have their own parts:

• Construction-specific standards are in Part 1926 (which often appears as 29 CFR 1926, or §1926 for short).
• Agriculture-specific standards are under §1928.
• General Industry rules appear under 29 CFR 1910.
• Maritime-specific standards run from §1915 to §1922

In cases where an industry has a separate regulatory body for safety and health, their standards are typically found under a completely different title number.

Are Each of OSHA’s Industries Completely Separate?

Unfortunately, understanding all the rules that apply to your industry isn’t as simple as memorizing the relevant part listed above.

Not every topic requires industry-specific rules, so some General Industry standards are universal. For example, standards for chemical hazard communication are found in §1910, but they also apply to Construction, Maritime, and Agriculture.

In other words, the industries that OSHA treats as special (Construction, Maritime, and Agriculture) have to pay attention to two sets of standards. For example, construction employers must comply with provisions of OSHA §1910 and §1926. Then

OSHA General Industry vs Construction

Because Maritime and Agriculture standards only apply to a relatively small number of workers, most of the workforce in the U.S. is covered by the General Industry and Construction standards (§1910 and §1926).

As the two most commonly used categories, people often have questions about the difference between OSHA General Industry and OSHA Construction.

Who Do the OSHA Standards for Construction and General Industry Apply To?

OSHA keeps it simple: construction standards apply to anyone engaged in construction work. Specifically, §1926 applies in work settings where construction, renovation, or demolition are underway. The only exceptions are where military or federal funding places a construction project under U.S. Army Corps of Engineering jurisdiction instead of OSHA. On these projects, EM-385 standards apply instead of §1926.

General Industry standards apply to any private industry except Construction, Maritime, Agriculture, and those with a separate regulating agency. For example, manufacturing, warehousing, health care, retail, and office work all fall under §1910.

These standards don't just apply to a type of workplace; they apply to a type of work. If you’re performing construction, renovation, or demolition tasks as a full-time employee for a warehousing operation, then you need to comply with Construction standards for those tasks.

The place where this gets tricky is when work rides the line between “construction” and “maintenance,” because maintenance work falls under the General Industry standard.

How Does OSHA Distinguish Between Construction and Maintenance?

OSHA defines construction work as "work for construction, alteration, and/or repair, including painting and decorating," whereas they generally interpret maintenance as work that "keeps equipment working in its existing state, i.e., prevents its failure or decline."

They generally consider replacement to be maintenance and improvement to be construction, but they take the scale and complexity of a project into account.

For an industry like property management, this means a worker would be governed by §1910 when they perform a plumbing repair, but §1926 when they renovate and upgrade a kitchen.

What are the Differences in the OSHA Standards for Construction and General Industry?

If you’re a workplace that falls firmly into one category or the other, there’s no need to know; you just stay in your lane.

If you’re one of the unlucky employers whose workforce lands in a gray area, the differences between these standards basically redefine "the devil's in the details."

Construction and General Industry standards often address the same hazards with different solutions or metrics. The distinctions can seem nit-picky, which is why it's important to know which standard you’re supposed to be adhering to at any given time.

Differences between OSHA 1910 and 1926 include:

• The exact height at which fall protection requirements kick in;
• Confined space entry requirements, atmospheric monitoring methods, and permitting processes;
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) standards;
• Safety requirements for ladders;
• The acceptable distance to eye-washing stations;
• Requirements for specific workplace illumination; and
• How quickly accident prevention signs need to be removed when a hazard is eliminated

How Are the Four Categories of Standards Related to the Types of OSHA Training?

It's important to note that "OSHA certification" does not exist. This term has become common shorthand for workers completing an OSHA Outreach Training program. Earning a DOL card, as it’s also sometimes called, may be required by employers in high-risk industries, and sometimes it's required by law.

Like OSHA standards, OSHA Outreach programs are also divided up by industry.

The four categories of OSHA standards almost match up with the four types of OSHA trainings, but not quite.

The four categories of OSHA standards are:

• General Industry
• Construction
• Maritime
• Agriculture

The four types of OSHA training are:

• General Industry
• Construction
• Maritime
• Disaster Site Worker

You’ll see that the last items are the sore thumbs.

OSHA doesn't manage an outreach training program for Agriculture. Even though it's considered separate within their standards, it's lumped in with General Industry for Outreach Training purposes.

This is mostly an issue of demand. OSHA does provide resources for agriculture safety training on its website, and you can find the occasional General Industry course that is tailored to agricultural work.

Meanwhile, OSHA has an outreach training program for disaster site workers even though there's no separate standard for the work. Disaster site worker training is designed for "workers who provide skilled support (e.g. utility, demolition, debris removal, or heavy equipment operation) or clean-up services in response to natural and man-made disasters."

Disaster sites have unique hazards and workers need to be trained about them ahead of time, so OSHA designed a special training program. A separate standard isn't necessary, though, because the relevant hazards and precautions are mostly covered under OSHA 1910 and 1926.

Choosing the right industry for your Outreach Training is the most important thing, followed by choosing the right level. Most industries are divided into regular 10-hour courses and supervisor-level 30-hour courses, but Disaster Site Worker courses are a little shorter.

Which OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 Should You Take?

With all the overlap, sometimes it can be tough to know whether you’re supposed to take OSHA 10 Construction, OSHA 10 General Industry, OSHA 30 Construction, or OSHA 30 General Industry.

Hopefully, we’ve resolved the industry question for you, but it depends not only on which type of work you'll spend the majority of your time on and whether you’re a supervisor but also on local regulatory requirements. If you’re in doubt, the best way to know is probably to ask your current or prospective employer which of the four is your best bet

Either way, we recommend an online course with an OSHA-authorized provider like us. It's convenient, self-paced, and cost-effective. Enroll today!