# Cal/OSHA Enforcement in San Diego

Cal/OSHA opened 1,016 inspections in San Diego from 2020 through 2025, and 29% of them were planned — the agency chose the workplace, no complaint or accident involved. San Diego is also the one California city with a real federal OSHA layer: 196 federal inspections, centered on the shipyards.

Source: https://compliantca.com/guides/cal-osha-enforcement-san-diego/
Published: 2026-08-28
Updated: 2026-08-28
Publisher: CompliantCA — not a law firm; this is not legal advice.

Cal/OSHA publishes no city-level enforcement statistics. This page is the San Diego cut, computed from the federal enforcement data that California inspections flow into: the **1,016 inspections opened at San Diego addresses from January 2020 through December 2025**, and the **2,402 citations** issued on them, carrying $5.0 million in penalties as they currently stand.

"San Diego" here is the mailing city on the inspection record, not the municipal boundary — Chula Vista, El Cajon, and the county's other cities are their own records. Our [county breakdown](/guides/cal-osha-inspections-by-county/) has the regional layer. We publish the same cut for [Los Angeles](/guides/cal-osha-enforcement-los-angeles/) and [San Jose](/guides/cal-osha-enforcement-san-jose/).

## What gets cited in San Diego {#top-standards}

Citations counted per violation line item, grouped to the base section. Average penalty is the penalty as it stands now, after any appeals and settlements, averaged across the row's citations — as retrieved 2026-08-21; these figures may change as cases settle.

| # | Standard | What it covers | Citations | Avg penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [§3203](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3203.html) | Injury and Illness Prevention Program | 384 | $1,249 |
| 2 | [§3395](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3395.html) | Heat Illness Prevention in Outdoor Places of Employment | 130 | $431 |
| 3 | [§1509](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/1509.html) | IIPP (Construction Safety Orders) | 123 | $964 |
| 4 | [§342](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/342.html) | Reporting Work-Connected Fatalities and Serious Injuries | 119 | $3,588 |
| 5 | [§5194](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/5194.html) | Hazard Communication | 90 | $633 |
| 6 | [§6151](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/6151.html) | Portable Fire Extinguishers | 60 | $249 |
| 7 | [§5144](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/5144.html) | Respiratory Protective Equipment | 57 | $246 |
| 8 | [§5162](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/5162.html) | Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment | 48 | $1,621 |
| 9 | [§3276](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3276.html) | Portable Ladders | 45 | $5,244 |
| 10 | [§3314](https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3314.html) | Control of Hazardous Energy (cleaning and servicing machinery) | 44 | $6,870 |
| | All other standards | | 1,302 | |
| | **Total** | | **2,402** | **$2,082** |

**§3203 takes a bigger share here than anywhere.** The [IIPP standard](/guides/8-ccr-3203/) alone is 16% of San Diego's citations, against 12% statewide; with §1509, the written-program pair reaches 21%. The middle of the table is a shop profile — hazard communication, respirators, eyewash stations, fire extinguishers — which fits the city's industry mix: auto repair (NAICS 8111) is San Diego's third-largest cited industry at 172 citations, behind specialty-trade construction (203) and traveler accommodation (175).

As in the other cities, the expensive rows are equipment rows: hazardous-energy control (§3314) averages $6,870 and portable ladders (§3276) $5,244, both more than double the city's overall average.

**Free IIPP template.** The §3203 program that leads this table — one section for each of the eight elements listed in §3203(a), plus the inspection and training record forms §3203(b) requires. PDF, no account.
[Request the template →](/request/iipp-template/?from=cal-osha-enforcement-san-diego)
{: .callout }

## The agency picks San Diego workplaces more than anywhere {#triggers}

Share of the 1,016 San Diego inspections opened 2020–2025, by trigger, against the statewide mix:

| Trigger | San Diego | Statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Accident investigation | 33% | 31% |
| Planned (programmed) | 29% | 21% |
| Complaint | 20% | 24% |
| Referral | 4% | 8% |
| Fatality/catastrophe | 4% | 5% |
| Related and follow-up | 10% | 11% |

**Planned inspections — [selected by the agency with no triggering event](/guides/what-triggers-a-cal-osha-inspection/) — are 29% of San Diego's openings, the highest share of the three big-city cuts** (Los Angeles 14%, San Jose 19%, statewide 21%). The industry mix helps explain it: statewide, auto repair is the most program-driven industry Cal/OSHA inspects — [61% of its inspections are planned](/guides/what-triggers-a-cal-osha-inspection/) — and auto repair is bigger in San Diego's data than in either other city's. A San Diego shop is comparatively likely to be inspected without anyone calling first.

Volume, meanwhile, has drifted down: 188 openings in 2020, about 150 a year since 2024.

## The federal layer: shipyards and federal facilities {#federal-layer}

San Diego's data holds something no other California city's does at scale: **federal OSHA**. California's state plan means Cal/OSHA runs almost all enforcement in the state — but federal agencies stay under federal OSHA, as does most maritime work on navigable waters. In a Navy and shipbuilding city, that is a real docket: **federal OSHA area offices opened 196 inspections at San Diego addresses from 2020 through 2025** — Los Angeles saw 27 — issuing 383 citations under the federal 1910 general-industry and 1915 shipyard-employment standards rather than Title 8.

Where those federal inspections land, by the industry code on the record: ship and boat building first (NAICS 3366), then traveler accommodation and national-security facilities. Ninety of the 196 were at federal-agency workplaces. For a private San Diego employer the practical point is jurisdictional: ship repair on the water can put a contractor under federal 1915 standards, while the same trade ashore answers to Title 8 — our [Cal/OSHA vs federal OSHA comparison](/guides/cal-osha-vs-federal-osha/) covers how the two systems divide.

## Methodology {#methodology}

CompliantCA computed this analysis from the [U.S. Department of Labor enforcement dataset](https://dataportal.dol.gov/) (the OSHA Information System), which includes Cal/OSHA because California operates an OSHA-approved State Plan — and which also records the federal OSHA inspections discussed above. Scope: inspections opened January 2020 through December 2025 whose recorded site city is San Diego, and citation line items issued in the same window on those inspections, excluding citation records deleted in the source data, as retrieved 2026-08-21. The top-standards table covers all citations in the cut, state and federal; federal 1910/1915 citations fall under "all other standards" because no single federal section reaches the table.

The city is the **mailing city on the inspection record**, which is close to but not identical with the municipal boundary; Chula Vista, National City, El Cajon, and the county's other cities are their own records. Federal inspections are identified by their federal area-office reporting ID; agency ownership uses the owner-type code on the inspection record. Citations are grouped to the base section, so §3203(a) and §3203(a)(4) count together; industry groupings use the NAICS code on the inspection record; trigger shares use the inspection-type code. Penalty figures are the penalty as it stands now, after any appeals and settlements (the dataset's "current penalty"), and change as cases settle. Cal/OSHA's own statewide summaries are at [DIR's citation statistics pages](https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Citation-statistics.html).

A citation count says what inspectors cited, not what any employer must do — the standards themselves say that.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many Cal/OSHA inspections happen in San Diego?

1,016 inspections were opened at San Diego addresses from 2020 through 2025, per federal enforcement data — drifting down from 188 in 2020 to about 150 a year since 2024. San Diego County as a whole saw 2,363 in the same window.

### What gets cited most in San Diego?

§3203, the Injury and Illness Prevention Program, with 384 of the 2,402 San Diego citations issued 2020 through 2025 — 16% of the city's total, a higher share than the standard's 12% statewide. §3395 heat illness prevention (130) and §1509, the construction IIPP (123), follow.

### Does Cal/OSHA do random inspections in San Diego?

Planned, rather than random — and more than anywhere comparable. 29% of San Diego inspections opened 2020 through 2025 were planned (programmed) inspections, selected by the agency with no triggering complaint or accident, against a statewide share of 21%.

### Does federal OSHA inspect workplaces in San Diego?

Yes — San Diego is the one California city where that layer is substantial. Federal OSHA area offices opened 196 inspections at San Diego addresses from 2020 through 2025 (Los Angeles: 27), issuing 383 citations under federal 1910 and 1915 standards. They concentrate on ship and boat building, lodging, and national-security facilities; 90 of the 196 were at federal agencies, which Cal/OSHA's state plan does not cover.