Understand the law regarding bathroom availability in the workplace.
Whether you are an employer wanting to ensure compliance with the law or an employee who wants to know if your company is following procedure, learn about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations regarding bathroom availability. Meant to promote the welfare of the worker, these standards represent the minimum requirements that a company must provide to its employees.
Gender Segregated Facilities
OSHA regulations require that employers provide gender-segregated facilities for all of their employees. Bathrooms must be designated as being for male or female use. An allowance is provided for single-person bathrooms, which can be used by both sexes, but the door must lock from the inside.
Toilets or Urinals
In the OSHA standards, what is generally known as a bathroom is called a "water closet." A water closet must contain a toilet, though it may contain other facilities, such as urinals, which do not count towards the minimum standard. However, in the case of male-only facilities, the number of urinals can be increased as long as the number of toilets does not fall below two-thirds of the number specified in the standard.
Allocation of Bathroom Facilities
The minimum standard for bathroom facilities states the number of water closets that a company must provide. However, the company must also consider the allocation of these bathrooms by gender. The number of bathrooms designated for men and women is determined by the number of employees of that sex at the company. For example, a company that employed 85 percent men would need to have 85 percent of their toilet facilities available to men, while a company that was equally split between men and women would need to provide an equal number of bathrooms for both genders.
Number of Bathrooms
The number of bathrooms required by law is dependent on the total number of employees. For example, companies of 15 or fewer employees need only offer one bathroom, while those in the next category, from 16 to 35 employees, should have two. Companies that employ more than 150 employees are required to provide six bathrooms, with an additional bathroom for every 40 employees. For example, a company with 230 employees would need to provide eight bathrooms.
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