2024 OSHA Penalties

Violations of safety rules on jobsites are now more expensive as the Labor Department announced its annual cost-of-living adjustments to OSHA civil penalties for 2024. The new penalty amounts went into effect on Monday, January 15.

OSHA’s maximum penalties for violations will increase from $15,625 per violation to $16,131 per violation. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $156,259 per violation to $161,323 per violation.

The increases represent an annual increase of around 3.2% from 2023 to 2024, a far cry from the 7.7% increase OSHA announced in penalty increases from 2022 to 2023. The penalty increases are tied to the annual cost-of-living increases across the federal government and to inflation.

States that operate their own Occupational Safety and Health Plans are required to adopt maximum penalty levels that are at least as effective as Federal OSHA’s. State Plans are not required to impose monetary penalties on state and local government employers.