Civil Penalties Adjusted for Inflation

A final rule published in the Federal Register by the United States Department of Labor in January raised the amounts of civil penalties that apply to MSHA and OSHA citations. The penalty amounts increased by approximately 2.6 percent.

The increases cover the gamut of OSHA violations, including serious, other-than-serious, willful, repeated, and failure to abate. OSHA state plans are required to maintain penalties that are at least as large as those of federal OSHA. The MSHA penalties whose amounts increased include violations of specific requirements in the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act.

The Labor Department calculated the adjustment based on the percent change in the consumer price index between October 2023 and October 2024. In addition to MSHA and OSHA, the adjustment applies to penalties assessed or enforced by the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, and the Wage and Hour Division.

For more information, view the rule in the Federal Register.