Report Finds Workers Are Less Safe After Trump’s First Year in Office

One year into President Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, workers’ rights advocates are sounding the alarm on the erosion of workplace safety laws.

A recent report published by Good Jobs First, a national policy resource center that promotes corporate and government accountability, found that under the second Trump Administration, there has been a significant drop in the federal enforcement of wage and workplace safety regulations. Simply put, under Trump, much less is being done to protect workers on the job.

Between 2009 and 2024, the report found that federal labor law enforcement remained constant, with an annual average of $385 million collected in restitution, damages, and civil penalties. But since Trump took office in 2025, workplace enforcement by the federal Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S Department of Labor has only collected $130 million in combined wage and hour and safety penalties, a 66% drop compared to the previous years.

The report found that in the first nine months of 2025, the WHD issued fewer penalties than in any year since 2009, an 83% decrease in average penalties. Wage theft enforcement cases have also declined by 97% during the same period, while workplace health and safety penalties dropped by 47%. Overall, the drop in penalties has coincided with a 35% drop in enforcement cases. OSHA, in particular, has seen a 45% reduction in penalties issued for workplace health and safety violations when compared to previous administrations.

There have also been significant federal cuts to enforcement agencies like OSHA, which undoubtedly put more workers at risk of injury or death. Since its founding in 1971, OSHA has prevented the deaths of more than 712,000 workers, reducing job-site deaths by nearly two-thirds. Still, workplaces have been far from safe, with about 140,000 workers nationwide being killed on the job annually. The weakening of workplace safety laws not only make worksites less safe, but have proven to disproportionately put immigrant workers at risk of death.

Siobhan Standaert, a research analyst and author of the Good Jobs First report, affirms the risk that immigrant workers unduly face due to reduced federal labor enforcement and increases in immigration enforcement.

“This is particularly worrisome for immigrant workers who may be afraid to speak up about unsafe workplaces due to retaliation and are in even further need of protections,” she said in a statement. “Especially when coupled with the more aggressive and targeted immigration enforcement by ICE over the last year.”

The decline in workplace enforcement regulations comes in the wake of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) July 1 announcement that it is deregulating 63 “costly and burdensome” workplace rules as part of its compliance with Trump’s executive order titled, “Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation.”

Among the rules that are at risk of being deregulated is OSHA’s proposal to amend the OSHA 300 Log, which tracks work-related injuries and illnesses on job sites. Once amended, employers would no longer need to record work-related musculoskeletal injuries, such as bone fractures. OSHA also plans to no longer cite employers for hazards that are common in high-risk jobs.

Budget proposals from the Trump Administration threaten to further reduce OSHA’s ability to enforce workplace safety standards. Proposed OSHA cuts would reduce the agency’s funding from $632.3 million in 2025 to $582.4 million in 2026. Among the cuts would be the elimination of an estimated 223 OSHA inspector positions, which would inevitably lead to fewer workplace inspections.

In addition to OSHA cuts, the Trump Administration also made budget cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in June. NIOSH, which funds and develops research and training tools that support workplace health and safety laws enforced by OSHA, had its staff shrink from nearly 1,400 employees to less than 150.

It’s not just budget cuts that have impacted worker protections. For most of Trump’s first year in office, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been rendered largely toothless as the president left the federal agency without the required quorum to rule on unfair labor practice and union election cases. The NLRB needs a minimum of three members to make rulings. Without a quorum, the agency has been overwhelmed with a growing backlog, leaving workers waiting almost a year for a resolution of their cases.

OSHA did not respond to Documented’s multiple requests for comment.

Locally, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), a coalition of workers, unions, workers’ rights activists, and health professionals, says that because the cuts will put workers in the city at risk of harm, they are calling on municipalities and the state to expand protections.

“We’re witnessing the dismantling of protections that took the labor movement decades to build,” said Charlene Obernauer, Executive Director of NYCOSH. “Fewer inspections, weaker penalties, and the proposed elimination of critical safety standards mean more workers will be injured and killed on the job.”

Ligia Guallpa, Executive Director of Workers’ Justice Project, a workers’ center that organizes immigrant workers, says that Trump’s cuts have had a chilling effect on immigrant communities.

“What we’re seeing nationally is a deliberate dismantling of worker protections and an escalation of attacks on immigrant communities that has created real fear and uncertainty about whether labor laws will be enforced at all,” she said in a statement.

On the ground, Garvey Barrett, a 68-year-old Jamaican baggage handler with Alliance Ground International at LaGuardia Airport, who was suspended after allegedly asking for water during one of the hottest days of the year, has been waiting months for the NLRB to rule on his case. Barrett’s union, 32BJ SEIU, says that without assistance, workers like Barrett are vulnerable.

“As Garvey and his co-workers started speaking out about their working conditions, they turned to this federal body as a recourse to protect their rights, but under the Trump Administration, the NLRB has been rendered effectively useless over the past year with no quorum,” said Rob Hill, 32BJ SEIU Airports Director, in a statement. “This emboldens bad actors and imperils essential airport workers like Garvey.”

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