Who must pay for personal protective equipment?

Under OSHA's general personal protective equipment (PPE) standard, employers generally must provide required PPE at no cost to employees. There are exceptions for certain types of PPE, however, including ordinary safety-toed footwear, ordinary prescription safety eyewear, logging boots, and ordinary clothing and weather-related gear.

Employers are generally responsible for paying for replacement PPE as well, except when the employee has lost or intentionally damaged it. Also, when employees provide their own protective equipment, employers may allow them to use it and are not required to reimburse them for that equipment. (However, employers may not require employees to provide or pay for their own PPE, unless it is one of the excepted items.)

Employers needed to modify their PPE payment policies by May 15, 2008, to comply with the revised standard.