On Jan. 11, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a final rule to adjust for inflation the civil monetary penalties assessed or enforced by the DOL, pursuant to the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The Inflation Adjustment Act requires that the agency annually adjust its civil money penalty levels for inflation by Jan. 15 of each year. However, due to a federal holiday on Jan. 15, the new OSHA penalty amounts went into effect on Jan. 16.

OSHA’s maximum penalties for serious and other-than-serious violations will increase from $15,625 per violation to $16,131 per violation. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $156,259 per violation to $161,323 per violation.

According to the DOL, states that operate their own Occupational Safety and Health Plans are required to adopt maximum penalty levels that are at least as effective as federal OSHA levels. State plans are not required to impose monetary penalties on state and local government employers.

DOL Resources:

• Enforcement memo, 2024 Annual Adjustments to OSHA Civil Penalties
• OSHA penalties webpage
• OSHA webpage