OSHA 300A Posting Requirements: The February 1–April 30 Deadline Explained

The OSHA 300A posting requirements come down to three things: what you hang up, where you hang it, and how long it stays there. Every winter, occupational-health teams reconcile the same questions — the summary is finished, but does it still go up if nobody got hurt, and who has to sign it before it does? Here are the answers, straight from 29 CFR 1904.32.

The deadline and what actually gets posted

Form 300A, the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, must be posted no later than February 1 of the year following the year the records cover, and it stays up until April 30 — a three-month posting window (29 CFR 1904.32(b)(6)). For the current cycle, that means your 2024 summary goes up by February 1, 2025 and comes down no earlier than April 30, 2025.

You post the 300A Summary only — the aggregate totals. You never post the 300 Log itself. The Log lists individual cases with employee-identifying detail and privacy-case entries, and it stays in your files. The 300A shows column totals: total cases, days away, restricted duty, and the injury/illness type counts. That distinction trips people up every year, so make it a checklist item: Summary on the wall, Log in the drawer.

The four year-end steps under 1904.32(a) are to review the Log for completeness and accuracy, create the annual summary, certify it, then post it. Do them in that order — you can't certify totals you haven't reconciled.

Where the 300A goes

Post it in each establishment in a conspicuous place, or places, where notices to employees are customarily posted. Once it's up, it must not be altered, defaced, or covered by other material (29 CFR 1904.32(b)(5)).

Read "each establishment" literally. If you run occupational health for a health system with a main hospital, two clinics, and a long-term-care facility, that's four separate postings, each showing that establishment's own numbers — not one system-wide sheet in the corporate lobby. The right spot is wherever your labor-law posters, safety notices, and pay information already live: the break room board, the time-clock wall, the staff corridor.

One point people get wrong constantly: posting it on the intranet or emailing a PDF does not satisfy the requirement. OSHA is explicit that a physical copy must be posted where employee notices are normally posted (OSHA FAQ 32-3). An electronic copy is a fine supplement. It is not a substitute for paper on the wall.

Yes, you post it even with zero recordable cases

This is the most common miss, and it's the one that draws citations. If you had no recordable injuries or illnesses for the year, you still complete a 300A, certify it, and post it — showing zeros. OSHA's own guidance is direct: "This information must then be posted for three months, from February 1 to April 30" (OSHA FAQ 32-2).

A clean safety year is not a pass on the paperwork. A blank space on the board where the 300A should be is indistinguishable, to an inspector, from having never done it.

How long it stays up — and how long you keep it

Two different clocks, and confusing them causes trouble.

The posting runs February 1 through April 30. Take it down after April 30; leaving last year's summary up into the new cycle just muddies which year employees are looking at.

Retention is far longer. You must save the 300 Log, the annual 300A summary, the privacy case list (if you keep one), and the 301 Incident Reports for five years following the end of the calendar year those records cover (29 CFR 1904.33(a)). So the sheet comes off the wall in five months but lives in your files for five years. Build a labeled folder — physical or digital — per establishment, per year.

Who certifies it

The 300A can't be self-certified by whoever keyed the numbers. A company executive must certify the summary, and OSHA defines exactly four acceptable signers under 1904.32(b)(4): the owner (for a sole proprietorship or partnership), a corporate officer, the highest-ranking company official working at that establishment, or that official's immediate supervisor.

For a hospital or clinic, that's typically your facility administrator or a corporate officer — not the safety coordinator or the OH nurse who compiled it. Route it for signature in mid-January so the certification isn't the thing holding up your February 1 posting.

Posting is not the same as the electronic submission

These are two separate obligations, and it's easy to assume one covers the other. The physical Feb 1–Apr 30 posting is one requirement. Electronic submission through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application (ITA) is another, with a March 2 deadline (OSHA ITA FAQs).

Not every employer submits electronically. You generally must file 300A data through the ITA if you had 250 or more employees (and aren't in a partially exempt industry), or 20–249 employees in an industry on Appendix A to Subpart E; establishments with 100+ employees in Appendix B industries also submit 300 and 301 case detail (OSHA ITA FAQs). Confirm your specific obligation through OSHA's ITA Coverage Application rather than guessing from the summary. But note: whether or not you submit electronically, you still post physically. The two don't cancel each other out.

Who's partially exempt

Some employers are off the hook for routine recordkeeping — but the health-care sector is not a monolith here, so check before you assume either way.

If you had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the prior calendar year, you're partially exempt unless OSHA or BLS notified you in writing (29 CFR 1904.1). Establishments in certain low-hazard industries listed in Appendix A to Subpart B are also partially exempt (29 CFR 1904.2) — and this is where health care splits. Offices of Physicians (NAICS 6211), Offices of Dentists (6212), and Offices of Other Health Practitioners (6213) sit on that partial-exemption list, so many physician and dental practices are not required to keep routine records. Hospitals (622), nursing and residential care facilities (623), and outpatient care centers (6214) are not exempt. Check your own establishment's NAICS code against Appendix A rather than assuming your "clinic" is or isn't covered.

One thing partial exemption never waives: you must still report fatalities, in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or loss of an eye to OSHA, regardless of your recordkeeping status.

FAQ

Do I post the 300A if there were no recordable injuries? Yes. Complete it, certify it, and post it showing zeros, February 1 through April 30 (OSHA FAQ 32-2).

Can I just put it on the company intranet? No. A physical copy must be posted where employee notices are customarily displayed. Electronic-only posting doesn't meet 1904.32(b)(5).

What happens if I miss it? Recordkeeping and posting failures are typically cited as other-than-serious, with a maximum penalty of $16,550 per violation (OSHA penalties). State-plan employers should check their own state's schedule.

How long do I keep everything after the posting comes down? Five years from the end of the calendar year the records cover — Log, 300A, 301s, and privacy case list (29 CFR 1904.33).

Keeping the Log clean all year is what makes February easy. If your OSHA 300 Log, 300A, and 301 records live in one place and generate a certifiable summary on demand — as they do in carefoundryESC — the annual posting becomes a print-and-hang task instead of a January scramble. Either way: post it, in every establishment, on paper, by February 1.