OSHA TRIR Definition: Formula, Recordables, and DART

The OSHA Total Recordable Incident Rate, or TRIR, is a standardized measure of how often work-related injuries and illnesses occur at a workplace, expressed as a rate per 100 full-time employees. It is calculated by multiplying the number of recordable incidents by 200,000 and dividing by the total hours all employees worked in the same period. The 2024 national average for all private industry was 2.3 recordable cases per 100 workers, which gives every employer a fixed reference point for judging their own number.¹

The Formula and Why 200,000

The calculation is simple: (total recordable incidents × 200,000) ÷ total hours worked.²

The 200,000 constant represents the hours 100 employees would log working 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year. That’s the whole point of the metric. A ten-person shop and a 5,000-person plant both get converted to the same per-100-workers scale, so a small employer with two incidents and a large one with fifty can be compared directly instead of by raw counts that would always favor the smaller operation.²

When totaling hours, count every hour actually worked by salaried, hourly, and part-time employees. Exclude paid time off, sick leave, and holidays, since those hours don’t involve exposure to workplace hazards. Payroll accuracy matters here. Inflated hours drag the rate down artificially, and deflated hours push it up.

What Counts as a Recordable Incident

The numerator only includes injuries and illnesses that meet OSHA’s recording criteria under 29 CFR 1904.7. An incident is recordable if it results in any one of the following:³

Death from a work-related cause.
Days away from work, meaning the employee misses one or more scheduled workdays.
Restricted duty or transfer to a different job.
Medical treatment beyond first aid.
Loss of consciousness, even briefly.
A significant work-related injury or illness diagnosed by a licensed healthcare professional, even without lost time or restricted duty.

Most recordkeeping disputes live inside this list. An employer who logs an incident as first aid when it actually required medical treatment ends up with an artificially low TRIR, and OSHA audits are built to catch that pattern.

First Aid vs. Medical Treatment

The line between the two is the single most consequential distinction in OSHA recordkeeping. Under 29 CFR 1904.7, first aid is a closed list: non-prescription medications at non-prescription strength, cleaning and flushing wounds, bandages or butterfly closures, wound-closure strips, hot or cold therapy, non-rigid wraps for sprains or strains, and temporary immobilization devices used while transporting an injured worker.⁴

Anything not on that list is medical treatment, and the incident becomes recordable. Stitches, sutures, prescription-strength medications, and physical therapy all cross the line. A useful shorthand: if a clinician did something a trained first-aider with a well-stocked kit couldn’t do, it’s medical treatment.

Work-Relatedness Exceptions

An injury that happens on the premises isn’t automatically work-related. Under 29 CFR 1904.5, several categories are excluded even when the worker was at work:⁵

The common cold or flu, though contagious diseases like tuberculosis or hepatitis A contracted at work are recordable.
Personal grooming or reactions to self-brought medication.
Voluntary wellness activities, blood donations, and flu shots offered at work.
Personal food and drink, unless contaminated by workplace chemicals or supplied by the employer.
Motor vehicle accidents in the company parking lot during a commute.
Mental illness, unless a qualified professional provides a statement linking it to the job.

These matter for accuracy in both directions. Recording an excluded incident inflates the rate just as recording nothing understates it.

DART: A Narrower Companion Rate

TRIR captures every recordable case, including ones that only needed medical treatment. The Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate uses the same formula but counts only incidents serious enough to cause missed work, restricted duty, or a job transfer. Because DART is a subset of TRIR, the DART rate is always equal to or lower than the TRIR. For 2024, the national DART rate for private industry was 1.4 against a TRIR of 2.3.¹

Contract owners and insurers often read both numbers together. A company with a low TRIR whose incidents are almost entirely DART cases has few injuries overall, but nearly all of them are serious. That pattern can raise questions the raw TRIR alone would not.

Benchmarking Your Rate

A TRIR alone is just a number. It becomes meaningful compared to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual incidence rates, which are organized by NAICS code so employers can compare against others in the same line of work.⁶ Some 2024 benchmarks:¹

All private industry: 2.3
Manufacturing: 2.7
Construction: 2.2

A TRIR well above the industry benchmark signals that safety programs need attention. Context still matters. A company that recently expanded, changed its work mix, or started tracking incidents more honestly after years of loose reporting may see a temporary spike that isn’t a real decline in safety. A suspiciously low rate at a high-hazard operation can point the other way, toward underreporting.

What Counts as a “Good” TRIR

No single universal threshold exists, but a TRIR below 2.0 is broadly considered acceptable across many sectors, and high-performing companies aim for below 1.0. In oil and gas, construction, and manufacturing, contract owners routinely screen subcontractors by TRIR. A rate above the industry average can disqualify a company from bidding regardless of price, so for many contractors the number functions as a gatekeeper.

How TRIR Affects Insurance and Contracts

Beyond OSHA compliance, TRIR has direct financial consequences. Workers’ compensation insurers use claims history to set an Experience Modification Rate (EMR), which multiplies the premium a company pays. An EMR of 1.0 is average; more claims than expected pushes it above 1.0 and raises premiums, while fewer claims brings a discount. EMR uses its own actuarial formula and is not the same number as TRIR, but the same underlying claim data drives both, so a high TRIR usually travels with a high EMR.

Project owners often set explicit TRIR and EMR ceilings for prequalification. An EMR above 1.0 or a TRIR above the industry average can lock a contractor out of major work entirely. Strong craft skills and a competitive bid don’t override an incident rate the owner doesn’t want to insure against.

Penalties for Recordkeeping Failures

OSHA treats recordkeeping violations seriously because inaccurate logs undercut the whole framework the rate is built on. For 2026, the maximum civil penalty for a serious, other-than-serious, or posting-requirements violation is $16,550 per violation. Willful or repeated violations carry a maximum of $165,514 per violation, and failure-to-abate penalties can reach $16,550 per day past the correction deadline.

Penalties apply per violation, so one audit that surfaces multiple misclassified incidents or missing log entries can compound quickly. Actual assessments turn on hazard severity, the number of workers affected, company size, and prior violation history, and OSHA adjusts the maximums for inflation over time. Separately, every employer, including those with partial recordkeeping exemptions, must report a work-related fatality within eight hours and an inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within twenty-four hours. Missing those deadlines is its own citable offense.⁷

1
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Table 1 – Incidence Rates of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses by Industry and Case Types, 2024
2
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Clarification on How the Formula Is Used by OSHA to Calculate Incident Rates
3
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1904 – Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
4
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. General Recording Criteria – 29 CFR 1904.7
5
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Determination of Work-Relatedness – 29 CFR 1904.5
6
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities
7
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Reporting Fatalities, Hospitalizations, Amputations, and Losses of an Eye as a Result of Work-Related Incidents to OSHA – 29 CFR 1904.39