Who Pays for PPE?
With few exceptions, OSHA requires employers to pay for personal protective equipment used to comply with OSHA standards.
Employers cannot require workers to provide their own PPE. If an employee chooses to use their own PPE, it must be a voluntary decision. Regardless of whether the PPE is provided by the employee or the employer, the employer is still responsible for ensuring that the equipment effectively protects the worker from hazards at the workplace.
The employer is required to pay for your PPE.
Employers must pay for the following:
- metatarsal foot protection
- rubber boots with steel toes
- non-prescription eye protection
- prescription eyewear inserts/lenses for full face respirators
- goggles and face shields
- firefighting PPE (helmet, gloves, boots, proximity suits, full gear)
- hard hats
- hearing protection
- welding PPE
Payment Exceptions under the OSHA Rule
Employers are not required to pay for some PPE in certain circumstances:
- Non-specialty safety-toe protective footwear (including steel-toe shoes or boots) and non-specialty prescription safety eyewear provided that the employer permits such items to be worn off the job site. OSHA based this decision on the fact that this type of equipment is very personal, is often used outside the workplace, and that it is taken by workers from jobsite to jobsite and employer to employer.
- Everyday clothing such as long-sleeve shirts, long pants, street shoes, and normal work boots.
- Ordinary clothing, skin creams, or other items, used solely for protection from weather such as winter coats, jackets, gloves, parkas, rubber boots, hats, raincoats, ordinary sunglasses, and sunscreen.
- Items such as hair nets and gloves worn by food workers for consumer safety.
- Lifting belts because their value in protecting the back is questionable.
- PPE that needs replacement due to loss or intentional damage by the employee.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-2. Which of the following PPE items must the employer pay for?
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