With speculation that summer 2025 will continue to break nationwide heat records, most outdoor workers have little protections in place to prevent heat-related illness, injury, or death on the job.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently wrapped up two weeks of continued public hearings to consider a national heat standard that would mandate employers to allow for paid breaks, water, and shade depending on “high heat triggers.”
“Heat is a silent killer,” David Martinez told Scripps News.
Martinez has been employed with the New Mexico Department of Transportation for the last ten years, working in construction and more recently, inspecting bridges across the state. “Here in the desert, it gets hot, fast. I’ve worked in areas, like running an asphalt machine, or mixing concrete when those temperatures double or triple your heat exposure.”
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, there were an estimated 33,890 work-related heat injuries and illnesses involving days away from work from 2011 to 2020. 479 deaths were reported due to environmental heat from 2011-2020, mostly among workers in landscaping, agriculture, manufacturing, and construction.
OSHA proposed the original rule under the Biden administration in summer 2024, with intentions to finalize by early 2026. But when President Trump took office, he signaled sweeping deregulatory goals; OSHA is one of the agencies required under his initiative to cut ten old regulations for every new one issued.
“We expected to see the rule scuttled entirely. We figured, this heat rule is done. It’s going to disappear” said Jason Mills, partner at Sidley Austin law firm and OSHA litigator, citing President Trump’s regulatory cut preferences. “All we can do is read the tea leaves, but OSHA wasted no time in coming back to this heat rule. If they’re acting so quickly at the very start of this administration, I think we can anticipate they’re going to push ahead on that.”
Mills speculates that President Trump’s decision to nominate a moderate Secretary of Labor pick in Laurie Chaves-Deremer helps play a role.
“She has both union ties and is business friendly,” Mills explained.
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The rule as proposed would measure a combination of outdoor temperatures and humidity to create “high-heat triggers.” When the trigger hits 80 degrees, employers would be required to provide water, rest and shade for workers. Once the trigger ticks up to 90 degrees, paid 15 minute breaks every two hours would also be required.
Martinez says a regulation like this would give him and his fellow employees “more of a voice.”
“Management tends to not like regulations,” he told Scripps News. “They tend to like productivity more than standards. I get wanting to increase productivity, but ultimately what happens is an employee gets sick from the heat, and has to take time off. So is it more financially feasible to avoid investing in water and paid break time, when employers instead have to pay for paid time off or workers’ comp?”
Employer advocates like Marc Freedman, the VP of Workplace Policy at the U.S Chamber of Commerce pushed back on the heat triggers, arguing the measurements differ by geography, industry, and function of the job. He and other employers instead would rather implement a “performance based standard,” which would give the employer more flexibility on when to enact standards.
“Our feeling is that there should be requirements to perform different components,” he told the OSHA panel during the public comment period earlier this month. “How they do that should be left up to the employers.”
Businesses do appear to be in agreement that having one national standard would be preferable over individual state rules, according to Alana Genderson, who also is a partner at Sidley Austin law firm and OSHA litigator.
“Businesses are saying it’s a complete mess, that it’s impossible to track all the state laws and comply in different ways in each state,” Genderson told Scripps News. She added that there’s a big gap in estimates of how much the implementation would cost, though. “OSHA estimates that this proposed rule would cost $7.8 million annually. The Small Business Administration, who testified, said it would cost $8.2 billion for small entities alone. That’s not just a rounding error; that’s a pretty significant number.”
The Environmental Defense Fund also testified in favor of implementing the rule, given that it acknowledges that heat-related health effects are heightened for certain groups of people.
“Excessive heat exacerbates existing health conditions like asthma, diabetes, kidney failure, and heart disease,” Elle Stephens, an attorney with the EDF, testified during the hearings. “New heat standards would have a positive impact on underserved populations like low-income and Hispanic workers, by providing workplace protections from extreme temperatures that have a disproportionate impact on occupations held by individuals from underserved communities.”
Krsiten Knebel, a spokesperson for OSHA, tells Scripps News that with the public hearings recently concluding, the “department will take everything into consideration and make a decision on how to proceed.” Experts predict that could happen as soon as early 2026.
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