States › Illinois › Machinery Manufacturing
Caterpillar Inc.
OSHA: 49 insp.Injuries: 3 yrLabor: 2 casesImmigration: 3 LCAContracts: $197M
Caterpillar Inc. is an employer in Irving, Illinois in Machinery manufacturing. Federal records hold 49 OSHA inspections, 2 concluded Wage and Hour Division cases, 3 labor condition applications, 2 PERM applications, a federal contract recipient profile and 3 years of injury summaries.
OSHA opened 49 inspections at Caterpillar Inc. sites in Illinois since 2016, issuing 18 citations, 12 of them classified serious, willful or repeat. Current penalties total $309,194 (initially $322,862), $6,310 per inspection, above the national figure of $3,754. 6 inspections have at least one contested citation.
On its 2025 Form 300A summary the employer reported 92 employees and 4 recordable cases, a total recordable case rate of 5.0 per 100 full-time workers, higher than the pooled rate for its industry (2.2; median establishment 1.6).
The Wage and Hour Division concluded 2 compliance actions involving Caterpillar Inc., recording $606 in back wages agreed to pay for 1 employee, under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
It filed 3 labor condition applications with OFLC across fiscal years 2025–2026, covering 3 worker positions. The median offered wage is $95,680 a year against a median prevailing wage of $95,680, below the median across all employers for its most common occupation ($123,741). The most common prevailing wage level is Level II (67% of filings).
OFLC records 2 PERM labor certification applications from the employer; the employer reported 44,700 employees on payroll.
USAspending lists Caterpillar Inc. as a parent recipient of $197M in federal contract obligations over the latest twelve months.
OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Citations may be contested; the status shown reflects the record at the data date. Enforcement data through 14 Sep 2026.
Inspections by year
Compared with industry, state and nation
| Measure | This employer | NAICS 333 | Illinois | US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citations per inspection | 0.4 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Current penalty per inspection | $6,310 | $4,096 | $5,775 | $3,754 |
| Share of inspections with a contested citation | 12% | — | 4% | 8% |
| Share of inspections with final orders on every citation | 24% | — | 61% | 56% |
Inspections with no citations count as "issued" with zero citations. Industry and state figures cover every inspection in the enforcement data since 2016, including employers without a page.
Citations by standard
| Standard | Subject | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1910.1053 | Respirable crystalline silica | 3 |
| 1910.28 | Duty to have fall protection and falling object protection | 3 |
| 1910.147 | The control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) | 3 |
| 1910.9 | — | 2 |
| 1910.212 | Machinery and machine guarding, general requirements | 2 |
| 1910.1200 | Hazard communication | 1 |
| 1910.29 | Fall protection systems and falling object protection, criteria and practices | 1 |
| 1910.22 | Walking-working surfaces, general requirements | 1 |
| 1910.146 | Permit-required confined spaces | 1 |
| 1910.243 | Guarding of portable powered tools | 1 |
Standard numbers as the record labels them (29 CFR section; 5(a)(1) is the General Duty Clause). State-plan agencies such as Cal/OSHA cite their own codes, which appear here as recorded. Counted from the first twelve citations of each inspection.
Inspections
| Opened | Type | Scope | Citations | Current penalty | Status | Cited standards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Aug 2026 | Referral · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Open | |
| 27 Apr 2026 | Referral · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Open | |
| 13 Mar 2026 | Complaint · Health | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 14 Jul 2025 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 1 Jul 2025 | Referral · Safety | Complete | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 6 Mar 2025 | Planned · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 3 Feb 2025 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 20 Aug 2024 | Complaint · Health | Partial | 3 (3 S/W/R) | $30,164 | Contested, final order | 1910.1053(c) (Serious), 1910.1053(f)(1) (Serious), 1910.1053(d)(1) (Serious) |
| 8 Aug 2024 | Unprogrammed related · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 6 Jun 2024 | Fatality/catastrophe · Safety | Partial | 2 (2 S/W/R) | $32,262 | Contested, final order | 1910.28(b)(1)(i) (Serious), 1910.9(b) (Serious) |
| 24 Apr 2024 | Complaint · Health | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 24 Apr 2024 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 13 Mar 2024 | Referral · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 14 Feb 2024 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 21 Dec 2023 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 8 Sep 2023 | Complaint · Health | Partial | 1 | $15,082 | Final order | 1910.1200(h)(3)(iii) |
| 6 Sep 2023 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 1 Aug 2023 | Referral · Safety | Records only | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 6 Jul 2023 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 17 May 2023 | Referral · Safety | Partial | 1 | $13,625 | Contested, final order | 1910.9(b) |
| 4 May 2023 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 14 Feb 2023 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 1 | $15,625 | Final order | 1910.212(a)(3)(iv)(f) |
| 12 Jan 2023 | Complaint · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 6 Dec 2022 | Referral · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed | |
| 14 Nov 2022 | Referral · Safety | Partial | 0 | — | Case closed |
Most recent 25 of 49 inspections. Status is per inspection: "Contested" when any citation has a contest date and "Final order" when every citation has a final order date; "Issued" otherwise. Violation types: S serious, W willful, R repeat. Each date links to the inspection detail on osha.gov.
Injuries OSHA Injury Tracking Application, Form 300A
Establishments submit their own Form 300A summaries; OSHA publishes the data as submitted and does not verify it. Rates are per 100 full-time workers (cases × 200,000 ÷ hours worked). Calendar years 2023–2025.
Injury rate vs industry
Total recordable case rate for 2025. The industry median is the median rate across establishments with at least 20,000 hours in NAICS 333 (quartiles 0.0–4.1); "overall" rates pool all hours and cases.
By year
| Year | Establishments | Employees | Hours | Deaths | Days away | Restricted/transfer | Other | TRC rate | DART rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 | 1,436 | 2,328,945 | 0 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 3.3 | 2.3 |
| 2024 | 3 | 254 | 508,358 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2.4 | 2.0 |
| 2025 | 3 | 92 | 158,937 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5.0 | 2.5 |
Figures sum every establishment filed under this employer name in Illinois. Rates are blank where fewer than 2,000 hours were reported.
Labor Wage and Hour Division
The Wage and Hour Division publishes concluded compliance actions since fiscal year 2005; amounts are back wages the employer agreed to pay and civil money penalties assessed, as recorded at case conclusion. Data through 15 Jun 2026.
Back wages by year of case conclusion
Compared with state and nation
| Measure | This employer | NAICS 333 | Illinois | US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back wages per case | $303 | $12K | $12K | $13K |
| Employees per case | 0.5 | — | 13.5 | 13.1 |
| Back wages per employee found due | $606 | — | $910 | $993 |
Acts
| Act | Violations | Back wages |
|---|---|---|
| Family and Medical Leave Act | 1 | $606 |
Cases
| Findings period | Violations | Back wages agreed | Employees | Penalties | Acts | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Nov 2011 – 3 Feb 2012 | 1 | $606 | 1 | — | Family and Medical Leave Act | Concluded |
| 1 Dec 2006 – 31 Dec 2006 | 0 | $0 | 0 | — | — | Concluded |
Every case in the WHD file is concluded; the file does not record whether back wages were subsequently paid. Case IDs: 1640688, 1497937.
Immigration Office of Foreign Labor Certification
Employer-specific case information was provided to OFLC by employers who submitted foreign labor certification applications. These are not employer responses to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' survey. Wage levels I–IV are as the employer stated on the application. LCA data through 30 Jun 2026; PERM through 30 Jun 2026.
H-1B labor condition applications
Applications by fiscal year
Prevailing wage levels
Level I 0%Level II 67%Level III 0%Level IV 33%Not stated 0%
| Measure | This employer | SOC 15-2051 | Illinois | US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median offered wage | $95,680 | $123,741 | $123,656 | $122,221 |
| Offered wage, 25th–75th percentile | —–— | $96,034–$158,895 | — | — |
| Share at Level I or II | 67% | 56% | 47% | 56% |
Wages annualised from the rate and unit on the application (hourly × 2,080). Medians use up to 400 sampled applications per employer. The occupation column is the employer's most common SOC code, Data Scientists, across all employers.
Top job titles
| Job title | Filings | Median wage |
|---|---|---|
| Data Scientist | 1 | — |
| Embedded Software Engineer | 1 | — |
| Control System Senior Engineer | 1 | — |
Occupations (SOC)
| Occupation | Filings | SOC median wage |
|---|---|---|
| Data Scientists | 1 | $123,741 |
| Software Developers | 1 | $138,494 |
| Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers | 1 | $104,728 |
Worksite states
Illinois 3
Visa classes: H-1B 3. Applications are attributed to the employer's state on the form (Illinois); worksites may be elsewhere.
PERM labor certification (green card sponsorship)
Top PERM job titles
| Job title | Applications |
|---|---|
| Autonomy Sr. Staff Engineer | 1 |
| Value Chain Designer | 1 |
PERM occupations
| Occupation | Applications |
|---|---|
| Validation Engineers | 1 |
Contracts USAspending.gov
USAspending recipient totals are federal contract obligations reported by awarding agencies for the latest twelve months; a recipient profile is a company-level record, not a per-state one. Retrieved 1 Oct 2026.
USAspending lists Caterpillar Inc. among the 3,903 largest federal contract recipients. The full award list is on the recipient profile.
Contract obligations by fiscal year
Awarding agencies
| Agency | Obligations, FY2021–2026 | Share of the agencies shown |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | $1.0B | 95% |
| Department of the Interior | $28M | 3% |
| Department of Homeland Security | $10M | 1% |
| General Services Administration | $10M | 1% |
| Department of State | $6.1M | 1% |
| Department of Agriculture | $4.1M | 0% |
The USAspending name is matched to this employer by normalised company name across all states; the total covers the whole company.
Questions and answers
Has OSHA inspected Caterpillar Inc.?
Yes. OSHA records 49 inspections at Caterpillar Inc. sites in Illinois since 2016, most recently opened 25 Aug 2026.
Were there penalties, and are they final?
18 citations with current penalties totalling $309,194. 12 inspections have a final order on every citation, 6 have a contested citation and 36 are recorded as issued. Citations may be contested; the status shown reflects the record at the data date.
Did the Labor Department find back wages due from Caterpillar Inc.?
The Wage and Hour Division's concluded cases record $606 in back wages agreed to pay across 2 cases, for 1 employee.
Does Caterpillar Inc. sponsor H-1B workers, and at what wages?
It filed 3 labor condition applications in fiscal years 2025–2026; 3 were certified. The median offered wage is $95,680 a year; the most common job title is Data Scientist.
Does Caterpillar Inc. sponsor green cards (PERM)?
OFLC records 2 PERM applications in fiscal years 2024–2026, 2 of them certified.
Does Caterpillar Inc. hold federal contracts?
USAspending lists it among the largest contract recipients, with $197M obligated over the latest twelve months (recipient level: parent); the largest awarding agency is the Department of Defense.
Have there been union elections at Caterpillar Inc.?
NLRB election results are not loaded on this site at present, so this page cannot say either way. The NLRB publishes recent election results and a case search on nlrb.gov.
Is this the same company as the one I am looking for?
Records are matched by normalised name and state. Subsidiaries, franchisees and other states' entities have their own records. See the methodology for how matching works.
Provenance
OSHA inspections and violations: US Department of Labor enforcement data, data.dol.gov, through 14 Sep 2026, inspections opened since 2016. Injury summaries: OSHA Injury Tracking Application Form 300A data, calendar years 2023, 2024, 2025. Wage and Hour compliance actions: data.dol.gov, concluded cases through 15 Jun 2026. LCA and PERM: OFLC disclosure files, fiscal years 2025–2026 through 30 Jun 2026. Federal contracts: USAspending recipient API, latest twelve months at 1 Oct 2026. NLRB election results are not loaded in this build. US government works, public domain; USAspending data is released under CC0. Page built 1 Oct 2026; errors in processing are corrected at the next build (corrections). Disputes about a record go to the agency that holds it.