OSHA 10 vs OSHA 30: Which Does Your Crew Need?

If you employ construction workers, you've almost certainly been asked for an "OSHA card" — and you may have wondered whether your crew needs the 10-hour version, the 30-hour version, or both. The short answer: it depends on the role. Here's how to decide, and how to keep those cards from quietly lapsing.

What OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 actually are

Both are voluntary outreach training courses from OSHA's Outreach Training Program, delivered by authorized trainers. They teach workers to recognize and avoid common jobsite hazards. The difference is depth:

• OSHA 10-Hour — entry-level awareness training aimed at frontline workers. It covers hazard recognition, fall protection, electrical safety, and workers' rights at a foundational level.
• OSHA 30-Hour — a deeper course intended for supervisors, foremen, and anyone with safety responsibility. It covers the same hazards in far more detail, plus managing safety on site.

Who needs which?

OSHA itself doesn't mandate the cards nationally, but many states, general contractors, and project owners do. A common rule of thumb on construction sites:

• OSHA 10 for laborers, operators, and journeymen — the people doing the work.
• OSHA 30 for foremen, superintendents, safety leads, and supervisors.

Several states (including New York, with its well-known Local Law requirements for certain projects) and most large GCs will not let a worker on site without the appropriate card. If you bid public or commercial work, assume you'll need to prove it.

Do OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 cards expire?

Here's the part that trips employers up. The federal OSHA cards themselves do not carry a nationwide expiration date. However:

• Some states and contractors require renewal on their own schedule (commonly every 3–5 years).
• Replacement cards are only available from the trainer within a limited window, so a lost card can be a real problem years later.
• Related safety certs your crew holds alongside the OSHA card — first aid/CPR, fall protection, HAZWOPER refreshers — absolutely do expire, often annually.

So even though the OSHA card may not have a hard expiry, the documents around it do — and that's exactly where teams lose track.

How to keep cards current without the scramble

The failure mode is almost always the same: the cards live in a binder or a shared spreadsheet that nobody actively watches, and a gap only surfaces when a GC or inspector asks. A simple system fixes it:

• Record every worker's OSHA card and any renewal date a state or GC imposes.
• Attach a photo of the card so a replacement is never needed from scratch.
• Track the related certs (CPR, fall protection, HAZWOPER) that do expire.
• Get an automatic reminder well before any renewal is due — not the week of.

That's the entire premise behind CertLedge: log each card once, and let automatic alerts at 90, 30, and 7 days handle the watching for you.