Michigan’s occupational safety agency is putting money on the table again for small employers that want better fall protection, head protection and trench gear. MIOSHA opened a new cycle of its Workplace Improvement to Safety and Health grants on Oct. 1. Last fiscal year the program paid out $500,000 in matching grants to 129 employers, and construction firms made up the largest group of recipients.
The program details were published Oct. 15. It’s a dollar-for-dollar match capped at $5,000 per employer. Spread across 129 awards, last year’s pot works out to roughly $3,900 each, so most winners came close to the ceiling.
Who qualifies for MIWISH safety grants
Eligibility is narrow on size and broad on equipment. An employer needs 250 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees under its federal EIN, has to fall under MIOSHA’s jurisdiction and must have had at least one employee on payroll for a year. There’s no pre-approved equipment list. Each request is judged against MIOSHA standards case by case.
The paperwork is where small contractors tend to stumble. Every application needs a site-specific hazard evaluation that justifies the purchase. It can come from an in-house safety professional, a safety committee, the workers’ comp carrier, a private consultant, a trade association or a MIOSHA consultant, and it needs a handwritten signature. Applicants also have to be registered as vendors in the state’s SIGMA system before they apply.
MIOSHA gives preference to high-hazard industries and to projects tied to its emphasis programs. Trenching and excavation is on that list, along with amputations and heat-related illness.
How the money moves
It’s first come, first served. Funds go out until they’re gone, and review usually takes three to four weeks. Winners get 120 days to order, receive and put the equipment into service, then submit paid invoices with photos or video of the gear in use. Copies of checks don’t count as proof of payment.
Repeat applicants have to wait. A company that won in fiscal 2026 can’t apply for fiscal 2027 money until Jan. 1, a rule meant to give first-time applicants a head start.
Michigan contractor Sobie Company used its award for Type II safety helmets and full-body harnesses. “This funding allowed us to upgrade our team’s head protection,” safety director Zachariah Tozer said. The purchase lines up with September’s revision of ANSI/ISEA Z89.1, which added optional Type I+ and Type II+ ratings for chin strap and retention performance.
“Small businesses often know exactly what safety improvements they need, but the cost of new equipment can be a barrier,” MIOSHA Director Bart Pickelman said.
Small dollars, targeted use
MIWISH is small next to federal programs such as OSHA’s Harwood grants, which Exchange noted fell to $10.2 million this year. MIOSHA also runs a separate training track: 16 Consultation Education and Training grants worth $900,000 for fiscal 2027.
For a 20-person excavation sub, $5,000 of matched money buys a trench box rental, a shoring upgrade or a crew’s worth of new helmets and harnesses. That’s not transformative. It is the kind of purchase that gets deferred every year until an inspector or an incident forces it, which is exactly the gap the match is built to close. The application is posted on MIOSHA’s grants page.