Human Resource Blog

Maryland State Worker Safety

I was recently transferred to

Maryland. As an employer, am I subject to OSHA worker safety regulations, or those of a different agency?

Your business will be subject to the regulations of a state agency known as MOSH.  You can expect regulations to be a little more strict than OSHA’s in a few respects, but otherwise very familiar if you’ve worked under OSHA standards in the past.

States have the right to create their own health and safety agencies. OSHA must approve those agencies, and has oversight of them. By law, those state agencies may create regulations that are more strict than OSHA’s, but not less strict.

Although states are encouraged to develop their own agencies under Section 18 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, OSHA pays just 50% of a state agency’s operating budget. The remaining half must be covered by each state that opts to have its own agency.

Half the costs must be borne by the state even though federal regulations require that those state agencies take responsibility for all safety inspections and for probing all accidents at the job site. The states with their own agencies must also provide safety and health education classes and programs that OSHA would otherwise have offered, and they must provide free safety consultations on the site, so employers can discover dangers in the workplace and correct them.

Eight states that had agencies in the past have chosen to revert back to control by the regulations of the federal OSHA.

Besides Maryland, 20 states now have their own agencies. MOSH, like those other agencies, provides health and safety regulation for businesses and non-profits. All states are required to cover local and state government employees. Some of the other states with agencies include Arizona, Alaska, Kentucky, Maryland, and

Iowa. Three states have chosen to create agencies strictly for government workplaces, both state and local. They are Connecticut, New Jersey, and

New York. Along with the

Virgin Islands, OSHA still provides the regulatory mechanism for private and other non-government employers.

MOSH is short for the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration.