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.