The city of Austin is psychotic when it comes to safety. You can get kicked off a job incredibly fast, and people even get banned from working in the city for multiple infractions. Safety people walk around with cameras and wont even tell you if you are violating a rule, they will simply take a picture of you without safety glasses on ect and send it on up the food chain.

Keep in mind, the safety record of a contractor goes into the bidding process. So by you being safe, you potentially increase your companies profit potential.

It only gets crazy on the really big jobs, and god help you if the job is being insured by the city. Smaller jobs, and jobs outside of Austin are much more relaxed. I'm not condoning being unsafe just because you are outside city limits, but when a safety guy is telling you to put on a harness when you are working on a 6 foot ladder, people get a little frustrated.