OSHA 10 Cards Written Into State Law: Which States, Which Projects, Which Roles

A bid document asks for 10-hour safety cards and nobody on your team questions it. The phrase turns up in contracts and project specifications across the country, so it reads like a federal rule. It is not one, and the real requirement comes from 7 state legislatures that each wrote their own version.

Those legislatures all point at 1 federal program. The agency describes that program as voluntary and says plainly that it meets the training requirements of no federal standard. Hiring somebody without a card breaks no provision of the OSH Act.

The Act is silent, so state law is where the real requirement lives, and the 7 statutes disagree on almost every detail. Thresholds run from $10,000 to $250,000, deadlines run from before work starts to 60 days after it has begun, and 1 state ignores public funding entirely. A contractor working in 3 of them is working under 3 different rules.

Where the Federal Requirement Stops

Those rules rest on a federal position short enough to state once. Authorized trainers deliver the 10-hour and 30-hour courses and issue the completion cards, under a program the agency runs itself. It introduces workers to hazard recognition, and the agency's own materials say it satisfies no standard's training requirement.

The agency's own requirement is compliance with the standards themselves. The fall protection, scaffold, confined space and hazard communication standards all apply to your site whether or not anybody holds a card. Those duties are unaffected by the card in either direction.

Why States Used the Federal Course Anyway

States began writing that card into public works law in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Building a state curriculum would have meant building a trainer network, an authorization process and a card, all of which already existed. Pointing at an authorized course gave them all of it free.

That choice explains why the statutes look alike on the card and differ everywhere else. Each legislature picked its own threshold and its own deadline. The card is the only thing all 7 statutes share.

The 7 States, and the 1 That Is Different

Six of those statutes attach to publicly funded construction. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island all key their requirement to public works or public building contracts, and 5 of those 6 set a dollar threshold. Nevada is the exception and reaches construction generally.

Reading that table across shows how little a single compliance policy can cover. A worker clearing Massachusetts at $10,000 tells you nothing about New York. The deadlines are further apart than the thresholds, because a Missouri worker has 60 days and a New Hampshire worker has none, which leaves Nevada in a category of its own.

What Nevada Does Differently

Nevada is worth reading on its own, because it breaks the pattern in 3 places at once. Its statute applies to construction sites generally, with no public funding test and no contract value. A private developer building a commercial facility there holds the same obligation as a public works contractor.

Nevada also requires an OSHA 30 card for supervisory employees, which no other state in the group does. The deadline runs 15 days from the date of hire and not from the start of a project, so a worker arriving with a current card already satisfies it. The state extends that duty to convention services workers as well.

The 2 Places a Card Stops Being Current

That duty travels with the worker, and expiry is where the portability stops. The federal program sets no expiration date on a completion card at all, so a card issued in 2015 is still a valid card as far as that program is concerned. Two states and 1 city have decided otherwise.

One of those states is Nevada, where cards expire after 5 years, and that limit comes from the statute itself. Connecticut handles age differently and the detail is easy to get backwards. Its statute lets a licensed plumber or electrician qualify with a 10-hour course completed 5 or more years earlier, provided they add a supplemental course of at least 4 hours.

That provision adds a refresher to an old card for licensed trades. It does not impose a 5-year retake on every worker in the state, which is how it is usually described. Reading it as a general renewal rule overstates the duty for most of your workforce and understates the supplement for the trades that rule covers.

New York State and New York City Set Separate Rules

A similar rule split happens in New York, because the state and the city run 2 regimes. The state rule covers public work contracts at $250,000 or more and asks for the OSHA 10 card. New York City's Local Law 196 is a different scheme with different hours.

A Site Safety Training card under Local Law 196 shows 40 hours of training for a worker and 62 hours for a supervisor, and the card itself is valid for 5 years. The 10-hour course is one component inside those hours and does not satisfy the city requirement on its own. A worker holding an SST card has not satisfied the state rule.

What KC LMS Gives a Construction Compliance Team

Both the state and the city answers need a record about a named person, which is the only thing a general contractor can usefully produce under pressure. A card in somebody's wallet is not an answer, and a spreadsheet rebuilt each quarter is not much better. The record has to name the worker, the course and the date it was completed.

That record is what KC LMS produces, assigning training from the attributes your HR record already holds. Completion is recorded against the person with a date, and certificates hold an expiry date where a state sets one. A weekly-refreshed content library keeps the supporting material current.

For a construction and engineering business, the practical step is to stop treating OSHA 10 construction training as 1 rule. Record which states each worker is cleared for, keep the card date beside the name, and check Nevada and Connecticut separately. The bid document will keep saying OSHA 10, and your record has to say rather more than that.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does OSHA require workers to hold an OSHA 10 card?

No. The Outreach Training Program is voluntary, and OSHA states that it does not meet the training requirements for any OSHA standard. An employer who hires somebody without a card breaks no provision of the OSH Act. The requirement, where one exists, comes from state law or from the contract.

2. Which states require OSHA 10 cards on construction projects?

Seven: Connecticut (CGS 31-53b), Massachusetts (Chapter 306 of the Acts of 2004), Missouri (RSMo 292.675), Nevada (NRS 618.983), New Hampshire (RSA 277:5-a), New York (Labor Law 220-h) and Rhode Island (RIGL 37-23-1). Six key the duty to publicly funded construction and Nevada reaches all of it.

3. Does an OSHA 10 card expire?

There is no federal expiration date on an Outreach completion card. Nevada sets one anyway, where cards expire after 5 years. Connecticut treats an old card differently again, allowing a licensed plumber or electrician to use a 10-hour course completed 5 or more years earlier provided they add a supplemental course of at least 4 hours.

4. Is NYC Local Law 196 the same as the New York State requirement?

No. Labor Law 220-h applies to public work contracts of $250,000 or more and asks for the OSHA 10 card. Local Law 196 is a New York City scheme requiring a Site Safety Training card of 40 hours for a worker and 62 for a supervisor, valid 5 years. Neither card satisfies the other requirement.

5. Does a card from one state work in another?

The card itself is portable, because any OSHA-authorized Outreach trainer issues the same card. Whether it satisfies a given state is a separate question. Nevada's 5-year expiry, Connecticut's supplemental course for licensed trades and the separate New York City scheme all mean a current card is not automatically sufficient everywhere.

References

1. OSHA. Outreach Training Program.
2. eLCOSH. State OSHA 10 Laws.
3. Massachusetts Attorney General. Advisory on the OSHA 10 Act.
4. Connecticut General Statutes 31-53b.
5. New York Labor Law 220-h.
6. Missouri Revised Statutes 292.675.
7. Nevada Revised Statutes chapter 618.
8. New York City Department of Buildings. SST Card Information.