NFPA 70E, State by State

The standard is national. Enforcement, licensing, code adoption, and whether anyone is covering your public employees are not. Each guide covers who enforces what, what your electricians’ licenses actually require, and real cited cases from that state.

01Why state pages exist on a national standard’s site

NFPA 70E doesn’t change at the state line. Four things around it do — and together they decide what compliance actually costs you:

• Who enforces it. Twenty-two states run full OSHA-approved plans; seven cover public employees only; the rest are federal-OSHA states. In several of those, public employees have no workplace safety coverage at all — no inspections, no citations, nothing.
• What the license means. Some states license individual electricians, some license only contractors, some license nothing statewide and leave it to municipalities. Continuing education ranges from 32 hours per cycle to zero. Almost nowhere does it require NFPA 70E work practices.
• Which code is installed. Adopted NEC editions across these ten states span 2017 to 2023 — a six-year spread. Installation code has no bearing on your work-practice obligation, but it tells you a lot about the equipment your people are opening.
• What actually kills people there. Tree work in Georgia. Storm restoration in Florida. Overhead line contact everywhere. The cases are local even when the standard isn’t.

02Ten states, each with real cited cases

• Texas

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Five real cases including the $49,650 Tesla Giga Texas fatality. Nine area offices, TDLR licensing, and the public-sector gap.

• California

  Cal/OSHA State Plan. Title 8 Electrical Safety Orders split by voltage, the mandatory IIPP, 8-hour serious injury reporting, and 32-hour CE.

• Florida

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. Public employees uncovered since 2000. Storm restoration, generator backfeed, and 11 total CE hours per cycle.

• New York

  Public-employee State Plan. PESH and federal OSHA on the same jobsite. No state license — NYC DOB only. NYC is a code cycle behind upstate.

• Pennsylvania

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. 2,562 municipalities, zero statewide license, zero reciprocity — and a UCC review process that keeps the state a cycle behind.

• Ohio

  Federal OSHA · PERRP for public. PERRP is state law, not an OSHA plan. Plus the $222K Willard arc blast and a $1.2B 765-kV transmission buildout.

• Illinois

  Public-employee State Plan. Chicago runs its own code — still 2017 NEC — its own licensing, and Class 1 rules requiring 8,000 apprenticeship hours.

• Georgia

  Federal OSHA · No public coverage. EV megasites and line-clearance fatalities in the same state. Class I is restricted, Class II isn’t — and CE Broker starts 2026.

• North Carolina

  Full 18(e) State Plan. Full private and public coverage — with military-base carve-outs. Two fatality cases, and the 2023 NEC indefinitely delayed.

• Michigan

  MIOSHA Full State Plan. Federal rules renumbered into Parts 39/40/85/86/33. MIOSHA does not adopt 70E. No recurring electrician CE at all.

03How these ten states compare

Two patterns worth sitting with. First: in five of these ten states, public employees have no OSHA coverage — meaning a municipal lineman, county electrician, or school district maintenance tech works with no enforcement backstop whatsoever. Second: not one of these ten states requires NFPA 70E work-practice training as a condition of licensure. Every credential in the table certifies installation competence. None certifies that the holder knows how to work safely on what they installed.

Which puts the obligation exactly where the standard puts it — on the employer.

04More states coming

Additional state guides are in development, prioritized by class demand and industrial concentration. Working in a state not yet listed? The Update Watch newsletter announces each new guide, and the 2027 Implementation Guide plus the industry guides cover everything that doesn’t vary by state.