I want to tell you a number that should make you uncomfortable. In September 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had 812 federal safety inspectors. By September 2025, that number had dropped to 629. That is a 22 percent decline in a single year—and nobody outside the safety world seemed to notice.
Meanwhile, 15 workers are still dying on the job every single day in America. The total cost of workplace injuries hit $176.5 billion in 2023, according to the National Safety Council. Employers shell out more than a billion dollars a week in workers’ compensation alone. Those numbers have not budged. What has budged is the number of people responsible for making sure companies follow the rules.
The Inspection Gap Nobody Is Talking About
Here is how bad it has gotten. There are roughly 1,800 total inspectors—federal and state combined—covering 11.8 million workplaces and 161 million workers. That works out to one inspector for every 84,937 workers. At that pace, the average workplace can expect an OSHA inspection once every 185 years. The proposed fiscal year 2026 budget would cut funding by another eight percent and eliminate 223 positions, dropping projected inspections to around 25,000—nearly 30 percent below recent averages.
A group of U.S. senators flagged the problem this year, pointing to a 20 percent drop in inspections over just six months in 2025. Penalties for willful safety violations have reportedly dropped 47 percent compared to the 17-year average.
Companies Are On Their Own. Some of Them Know It.
Strip away the politics and this is really a story about what happens on the ground floor of a warehouse or a construction site when the safety net gets thinner. The burden shifts to whoever happens to be standing closest to the hazard. That is usually a frontline supervisor.
Most supervisors did not sign up for that. They got promoted because they were good at the technical part of the job—welding, wiring, managing a crew—not because they could recite fall protection standards from memory. But when there is nobody from OSHA showing up to check, the person who spots the frayed harness or the missing guardrail is the person who prevents the funeral. That is just the reality.
Which is why a credential called the Safety Trained Supervisor, or STS, has quietly become one of the more relevant certifications in the American workforce. Administered by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals since 1969, the STS is built for people whose primary job is not safety—but who carry safety responsibilities anyway. Floor managers, crew chiefs, department heads, team leads. People already doing the work without the title.
What the Certification Actually Involves
The exam is 100 multiple-choice questions in two hours. You need a 70 percent to pass. It covers six domains: hazard recognition, regulatory compliance, safety training, incident investigation, emergency preparedness, and safety management systems. Nothing
theoretical—it is all applied. You either know how to identify a confined space entry hazard or you do not.
Eligibility requires 30 hours of safety, health, and environmental training plus one of the following: two years of supervisory experience, four years of general work experience, a relevant associate degree, or completion of a two-year trade apprenticeship. The application runs $120 and the exam is $185, administered through Pearson VUE.
I have talked to a few people who have taken it, and the consistent feedback is that the exam is harder than it looks. The questions are scenario-based, not rote memorization. Several of them recommended spending real time with an STS practice test before sitting for the real thing, because the format catches people off guard if they have only studied content without practicing the application side.
The Business Case Is Not Subtle
Forget the moral argument for a second and just look at the dollars. The National Safety Council pegs the average medically-consulted workplace injury at $43,000. Workers’ comp claims from falls alone average over $54,000. A single serious OSHA violation can exceed $15,000 in fines, and willful violations run north of $150,000.
A study cited by OSHA found that workplaces inspected by California’s safety division saw a 9.4 percent drop in injury claims and saved an average of $355,000 over four years. The logic extends to internal programs: when someone on site actually knows what they are looking at, problems get caught before they become catastrophes.
Fifteen a Day
Over 100,000 BCSP credentials have been issued since 1969. For most holders, the journey started with either the STS or its construction sibling, the STSC. These are not executives at a conference. These are people on job sites, in plants, on loading docks—people standing there when something goes wrong.
Fifteen deaths a day. That number has been the same for years. Maybe the fix was never going to come from Washington.
