Budget Deal Includes OSHA Penalty Increases

President Obama signed a two-year budget agreement last week that authorizes the Occupational Safety & Health Administration to increase penalties by as much as 50 to 82%, according to a report from TLNT, an information source for human resource issues.

The maximum catch-up increase would mean that the $7,000 maximum fine for serious violations, for example, would become a $12,744 penalty.

It’s not clear whether OSHA will choose to increase penalties to the full extent allowed, but the budget agreement authorizes OSHA to make a one-time catch-up increase to compensate for more than two decades without increases. The catch-up increase can’t exceed the inflation rate from fiscal year 1990 through fiscal year 2015 as measured by the federal government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).

After the one-time catch-up increase, OSHA will then annually increase maximum penalties the amount of the inflation rate for the prior fiscal year. S