DOL Cancels This Year's Inflation Adjustment to Civil Penalties

A Federal Register notice published yesterday states that there will be no inflation adjustment to civil monetary penalties assessed by the Department of Labor in 2026. Annual penalty adjustments are required by law to be based on data from the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from the month of October of the prior year, and alternative methods of calculating civil penalty amounts are not allowed. CPI-U data is produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which did not publish the data for October 2025 due to a lapse in funding that occurred during October–November last year. A memorandum issued by the director of the Office of Management and Budget in April “informed agencies of the cancellation of the penalty inflation adjustment for 2026” and instructed them to continue using the 2025 amounts. This means that civil monetary penalties that apply to OSHA and MSHA citations, as well as penalties assessed or enforced by other agencies within DOL, will remain unchanged for 2026.

The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 requires federal agencies to adjust their civil penalties to account for inflation and is intended to help maintain their deterrent effect. Last year, the penalty amounts increased by approximately 2.6 percent.

“In 2027, the Department will undertake a thorough review of civil penalties administered by its various components pursuant to the Inflation Adjustment Act and in accordance with guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget,” the Federal Register notice explains.

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