Heat rules in the United States: OSHA's rulemaking and the General Duty Clause
What OSHA says about the status of its proposed federal heat rule, the General Duty Clause that covers heat today, the triggers in the proposal, and which states OSHA lists as having their own heat standards.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 8, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It describes OSHA's heat rulemaking page and its page on heat standards, and the Federal Register notice of the proposed rule, as read on October 8, 2026. State rules are on the pages for California, Washington and Oregon. The comparison of every place is on the heat rules overview.
Status of the federal rule
OSHA's rulemaking page says the agency published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, "Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings", in the Federal Register on August 30, 2024. The public comment period closed on January 14, 2025. The informal public hearing ran from June 16 to July 2, 2025, and the post-hearing comment period for people who had filed a notice of intention to appear ended on October 30, 2025. The page lists no final rule.
The page describes the proposed standard as applying to all employers conducting outdoor and indoor work in general industry, construction, maritime and agriculture where OSHA has jurisdiction. It would require employers to create a plan to evaluate and control heat hazards. In the Federal Register notice, OSHA proposes an initial heat trigger of a heat index of 80 degrees Fahrenheit and a high heat trigger of a heat index of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and says these are in line with triggers in state heat standards.
What applies without a federal heat rule
OSHA's page on heat standards says that under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are required to provide a place of employment that "is free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious harm to employees." It says courts have read the clause to mean an employer has a legal obligation to provide a workplace free of conditions that the employer or the industry recognizes as hazardous when there is a feasible method to abate the hazard, and that this includes heat-related hazards likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.
The same page lists related federal standards that touch heat work: the personal protective equipment hazard assessment at 29 CFR 1910.132(d), the recordkeeping rule at 29 CFR 1904, the sanitation standards that require potable water, and the first aid standards. On recordkeeping it explains that a case needing intravenous fluids meets the general recording criteria, while a worker only told to drink fluids is first aid and is not recordable. It also points to the NIOSH criteria document for a recommended heat standard, publication 2016-106, dated February 2016.
States with their own standards
OSHA's page says many states run OSHA-approved State Plans and some have adopted standards covering hazards the federal rules do not. It lists these states with heat standards:
| State | What OSHA's page says |
|---|---|
| California | Requires training, water, shade and planning; a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit triggers the requirements |
| Colorado | Points to the Agricultural Labor Conditions Rules for heat |
| Minnesota | The standard applies to indoor places of employment |
| Oregon | Points to the heat illness prevention rules in the general occupational safety and health division, which also applies to construction and forest activities, and in agriculture |
| Washington | Points to the state's Outdoor Heat Exposure Rule |
The Federal Register notice, as of April 2024, also describes Maryland and California as engaged in rulemaking.
Sources
- OSHA, Heat injury and illness prevention in outdoor and indoor work settings rulemaking, read October 8, 2026
- OSHA, Heat standards and the General Duty Clause, read October 8, 2026
- Federal Register, Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings, proposed rule of August 30, 2024, read October 8, 2026