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    OSHA 300Injury and Illness Log

    Also known as: OSHA Form 300, OSHA 300 log

    Definition

    The US OSHA log of work-related injuries and illnesses, kept with the 300A annual summary and the 301 incident report for each recordable case.

    Editorial definition: The QHSE Standard, updated 3 October 2026 · https://qhsetech.com/glossary/osha-300

    Scope: Routine recordkeeping exemptions exist; exemption from keeping a log does not remove every duty to report serious events.

    Sources checked: . Examples are editorial illustrations.

    What OSHA's rules say about the Form 300 log and its companion forms

    OSHA Form 300 is the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses kept by employers covered by the US recordkeeping rule. Section 1904.29 names three forms: the log (300), the summary (300A) and the incident report (301). It says each recordable case is entered within seven calendar days of the employer receiving information that the case occurred. Equivalent forms are allowed if they hold the same information, are as readable and are completed by the same instructions, and a computer system is acceptable where it can produce equivalent forms when needed. The section also lets an employer leave a name off the log for cases it classes as privacy concern cases, such as sexual assault, mental illness or a worker's own request.

    Section 1904.32 covers the annual summary. The employer reviews the log for completeness and accuracy, totals its columns on a 300A, has the summary certified and posts it by 1 February of the year after the one covered, where it stays until 30 April. The certifier is a company executive: the owner of a sole proprietorship or partnership, a corporate officer, the most senior official at the establishment or that official's immediate supervisor. Under 1904.33 the log, the privacy case list, the annual summary and the incident reports are retained for five years counted from the close of the year they cover. During that period the log is updated with newly discovered cases and changed classifications, and a changed entry is removed or lined out and replaced. Updating the summary and the incident reports is optional.

    OSHA's Injury Tracking Application page deals with a different duty, electronic submission. It lists as exempt from submitting any establishment with under 20 employees, any in a partially exempt industry and any with 20 to 249 employees outside the designated industries, while establishments with 100 or more employees in listed industries must submit detailed case data. Covered establishments send information from the 300A, and some also send 300 and 301 information from 2024. The deadline for the 2025 data was 2 March 2026. These are US rules. This page is general information, not legal advice, and the current text on OSHA's site governs.

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    What a Form 300 record set looks like in software

    • One row per recordable case, with the employee, job title, date, place, a short description and the outcome: death, days away, restricted work or transfer, or other recordable case.
    • The count of days away and of restricted or transferred days.
    • The date the employer learned of the case and the date it was entered, so the seven-calendar-day entry can be shown.
    • A privacy flag for cases whose names are withheld, with the confidential list that links each one to a person.
    • The linked 301 incident report or equivalent form for every case.
    • Annual totals, the hours worked and average employee count the 300A asks for, and the certifier's name, role and date.
    • Posting dates for each summary, retention dates for each year and the history of changes to entries.

    The 300, the 300A, the 301 and electronic submission

    The 300 is the running log, the 300A is the yearly summary of it and the 301 is the report on a single case. Electronic submission is a separate yearly step with its own thresholds, and the exemptions on the submission page concern sending data, so they do not settle by themselves whether the forms must be kept. The log lists recordable cases only, a narrower set than all incidents, near misses or first-aid cases. It is a US form, and RIDDOR in Great Britain and other regimes use different reporting rules.

    A hypothetical example: one year on the log

    This case is invented to illustrate the record and describes no real company. A packaging plant enters 9 recordable cases for 2026: no deaths, 3 with days away, 2 with restricted work or transfer and 4 other recordable cases. The three days-away cases lasted 12, 40 and 9 days, a total of 61 days, and the two restricted cases lasted 20 and 6 days, a total of 26. One case came to the employer's attention on 12 March, so its entry is due by 19 March.

    In January 2027 the plant checks the log for gaps, totals the columns for the 300A and has an executive certify it. The summary is posted by 1 February 2027 and stays up until 30 April 2027. The 2026 records are kept to the end of 2031, five years after the year they cover.

    Common misunderstandings about the OSHA 300

    • The log is not a list of every injury. Only cases that meet the recording rules are entered, so a first-aid case or a near miss does not appear on it.
    • The 300A is not a separate record. It is created from the log, which the employer reviews for completeness and accuracy first.
    • Posting the summary is not the same as submitting data online. One is a notice at the establishment and the other a transfer through OSHA's application.
    • Not any employee can certify the summary. The rule names the owner of a sole proprietorship or partnership, a corporate officer, the most senior official at the establishment or that official's immediate supervisor.

    How the OSHA 300 relates to other glossary terms

    The log is the source for several rates.

    • First aid case: the treatments that keep a case off the log unless another criterion applies.
    • Recordable incident: the criteria that decide whether a case is entered.
    • DART rate: a rate built from the days-away and restricted columns.
    • EMR: an insurance factor built from claims, a different record from this log.

    Records and evidence that usually exist for the OSHA 300

    • The log for each year, with the dates entries were made and changed.
    • The 301 incident reports or equivalent forms.
    • The confidential privacy case list, where one exists.
    • The certified annual summary and proof of its posting dates.
    • Hours worked and employee numbers by establishment and year.
    • Records of electronic submission, where the establishment is covered.

    What a software tool needs to capture for the OSHA 300

    • A case record that fills the log columns and the 301 fields from one entry.
    • A seven-day timer counted from the day the employer first had the information.
    • Privacy handling that withholds names on output but keeps the link internally.
    • Annual totals that reproduce the 300A and show how each figure was counted.
    • Retention settings for five years and an edit history that keeps the earlier entry visible.
    • An export in the format the electronic submission accepts, checked against a sample year.

    Catalog profiles documenting incident recording and reporting

    The list comes from the incident platform rule. It does not show that a product produces the 300, 300A or 301 layouts or the electronic submission file, which should be tested with a sample year of cases.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “Incident Management” or “Incident Reporting”, with a sourced incident reporting or management capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Tekmon pays for a sponsored placement (above); its place in this list follows the same rule as every entry. How lists are ordered

    All 56 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.

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    Frequently asked questions

    How long are Form 300 records kept?

    OSHA's retention section sets five years, counted from the close of the year the records cover. The log is updated during that period, while updating the summary and incident reports is optional.

    Does submitting data to OSHA replace keeping the log?

    No. OSHA's Injury Tracking Application page describes sending information from the forms, and some establishments are exempt from submitting. Those exemptions concern submission, so check the recordkeeping rules for the duty to keep the forms.

    Can a spreadsheet stand in for the printed form?

    OSHA's forms section allows equivalent forms, and computer systems that can produce them, if they hold the same information, are as readable and follow the same instructions.

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