The General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Federal OSHA) requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that may cause serious injury or death. This clause is often used by OSHA to enforce fall protection requirements. OSHA follows a hierarchy of fall protection controls, which prioritizes certain methods over others. Guardrails are considered one of the preferred methods of fall protection, alongside personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) and safety nets. They are often the first choice for providing passive fall protection.

Guardrails are designed to passively protect workers from falls. Design requirements and loading criteria for guardrails can be found in city adopted building codes. Where code allowed exceptions are met (such as the occupancy of the building is type S and the occupancy load is less than 50), Federal OSHA regulations and California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) regulations apply.