U.S. Department of Labor Issues Updated Penalty Guidelines

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued updates regarding penalty and debt collection procedures in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Field Operations Manual. This move is meant to minimize the burden on small businesses and increase prompt hazard abatement. This new policy would increase penalty reductions for small employers so that small businesses can more simply invest resources in compliance and hazard abatement.

A penalty reductions level of 70%, for example, would now be available to businesses with up to 25 employees, compared to the previous limit of 10 or fewer employees. The updated policy also outlines a 15% penalty reduction for employers who take immediate action in addressing or correcting a workplace hazard.

Furthermore, the updated policy expands the penalty reduction for employers with a history of willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate OSHA violations. A 20% penalty reduction is eligible for employers who have no prior history of federal OSHA inspections or an OSHA State Plan, as well as employers who have had inspections in the previous five years with no serious, willful, or failure-to-abate violations.

These new policies are effective immediately, with penalties issued before July 14, 2025, remaining under the previous penalty structure. Open investigations that haven’t had penalties issued yet will be covered by the new policies.

More information on OSHA can be found HERE.