Trump administration touts NV worker heat protections as national model, analysis suggests otherwise

Business and industry groups have held up Nevada’s worker heat protection standard as a national model, but Nevada’s own workers say otherwise, according to an analysis released last month. 

In Nevada, there is no specific temperature threshold that triggers mandatory employee heat protections. Instead, employers have sole discretion to decide when to provide heat protections for their workers

Nevada’s heat protection standard kicks in when working conditions create a “reasonable likelihood that heat illness could occur” and only requires employers to prepare a “one-time, written job hazard analysis to assess working conditions that may cause occupational exposure to heat illness.”

In practice, that means two construction crews performing the same task on the same day could be subject to different temperature thresholds.

Employers and industry groups argue that flexibility is needed to ensure regulations don’t burden businesses, while allowing more tailored standards across states with different climates. 

But a new analysis commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council and conducted by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health calls that model into question.

The analysis — which reviewed 2,561 records of heat complaints and referrals logged by Nevada OSHA from Jan. 2015 through Nov.  2025 — found that workers’ heat complaints across almost every industry in Nevada start climbing at about 90°F air temperature.

The analysis also found that the odds of a complaint more than tripled between 90°F and 100°F, and were nearly 8 times higher at 105°F. 

Barrak Alahmad, a senior research scientist for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the analysis reveals there is a clear data-driven threshold when working in extreme heat without protections becomes dangerous for workers.

“What we showed is that, yeah, even in Nevada, these thresholds exist,” Alahmad said. 

Nevada reguzations skirt temperature thresholds, which Alahmad called a foundational part of creating an effective heat standard. 

“We don’t think this should be the model going forward, and that the Nevada model, in fact, if anything, should have some basic thresholds that, when exceeded mandate water rest breaks and basic stuff,” Alahmad said. 

Alahmad, who co-authored the study, said he was motivated to analyze Nevada’s heat complaints after industry groups held up Nevada’s heat standard as a possible national model. 

Temperature thresholds were at the center of federal OSHA hearings last year, and proved unpopular among employers and industry groups. 

 In September, the U.S Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor, asking federal regulators to model any new federal regulations on Nevada’s model, citing the need for “flexibility.”

The Department of Labor has indicated it intends to publish a revised heat standard proposal by the end of the year, with expectations for a finalized standard by October 2027. Although the deadlines are not mandatory. 

Under the current OSHA proposed standards, when workplace conditions reach a heat index of 80°F, employers would be required to implement heat hazard protection. However, Alahmad said “that is not the rule of the land right now, and there doesn’t seem to be an appetite for it with the current administration.”

Alahmad said clear state and federal workplace temperature thresholds would reduce confusion over when to implement heat hazard protections. 

Just over 80% of complaints in Nevada came from Clark County, home to one of the nation’s fastest heating cities: Las Vegas. 

Alahmad said the findings also challenged the traditional assumption that heat illness is primarily an outdoor risk for construction or agriculture workers.

Nearly half of heat complaints in Nevada originated from indoor venues like hotels, casinos, restaurants, retail, and warehouses.

Sara Evans, the chair of SEIU Local 1107’s Climate Justice Caucus, said the issue is likely even bigger than official records show.

Many workers, especially those in nonunionized or precarious workplaces, are less likely to report dangerous heat hazards out of fear of retaliation, said Evans.

“It’s super alarming that the only people that are reporting heat-related concerns at work are usually people within unions,” Evans said. “We don’t even know what’s going on in these non-unionized areas.”

Only about 13% of private sector workers in Nevada are represented by unions.

Evans argued Nevada’s heat protection model should not be replicated nationally, adding that the state allows too much employer discretion. 

“We’re not enforcing corporations to actually do anything. We’re basically just asking ‘hey, please corporations, be good to your employees’,” said Evans. 

Evans said she started pushing for stricter heat standards in Nevada after seeing more vulnerable workers fall through the cracks.

“Especially right now, given our economy,” Evans said. “People are holding on to what they can, and they’re not going to speak out when they’re trying to put food on the table for their family.”