OSHA violations and penalties

Scope

OSHA’s violation penalty structure is based on a number of factors, including the type and gravity of violation, as well as the employer’s size, good faith, and history.

Editor’s note: In January 2025, OSHA issued a $4.1 million total penalty, the highest since 2015 after the agency found 20 alleged violations. The agency used its instance-by-instance citation policy, where a single violation can be multiplied by the number of instances (e.g., employees, pieces of equipment, or chemical containers involved).

Citations

• 29 CFR 1903 — Inspections, citations and proposed penalties
• 29 CFR 1903.15 — Proposed penalties
• 18 U.S.C. 1114 — Protection of officers and employees of the United States
• 29 U.S.C. 666 — Civil and criminal penalties

Key definitions

• CSHO (Compliance Safety and Health Officer): The federal OSHA employee who conducts inspections for the agency — a.k.a. “OSHA Inspector.”
• De minimis conditions: Conditions where an employer has implemented a measure different from one specified in a standard, that has no direct or immediate relationship to safety or health. An OSHA compliance officer will document these conditions in the same manner as violations. However, a penalty may be waived.
• General Duty Clause (GDC): A section of the OSH Act — Section 5(a)(1) — that requires employers to protect employees from recognized, serious hazards, regardless of whether there is a specific standard addressing that hazard. OSHA often uses the GDC to cite employers for not protecting workers from ergonomic-type hazards, workplace violence, and heat stress.
• General Industry: The group of industries who are covered by OSHA’s Part 1910 regulations. This includes the majority of workplaces, except for construction, agriculture, and maritime.
• OSH Act: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which is the enabling legislation for OSHA.
• OSHA: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration — the federal agency that sets and enforces worker safety and health laws.
• Repeated violation: A hazardous/violative condition that is the same or similar to a previously cited condition in the past five years at either the same establishment or another establishment of the same company under federal OSHA jurisdiction.
• Serious violation: A violation where there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew or should have known of the hazard.
• Willful violation: A violation that the employer intentionally and knowingly commits.
• Working days: Mondays through Fridays but shall not include Saturdays, Sundays, or Federal holidays. In computing 15 working days, the day of receipt of any notice shall not be included, and the last day of the 15 working days shall be included.

Summary of requirements

Under the OSH Act, employers should:

• Understand the OSHA violation penalty structure:
  • Serious — A violation where there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew or should have known of the hazard. It carries a proposed penalty of up to $16,550 per violation, but no less than $1,221 with all penalty reductions.
  • Other-than-serious — A violation having a direct relationship to safety and health, but the most serious injury or illness that could reasonably be expected to result from an employee’s exposure would not be severe. No penalties are usually proposed, but they can be as high as $16,550.
  • Willful — A violation that the employer intentionally and knowingly commits. It carries a maximum penalty of $165,514 per violation, but no less than $11,823.
  • Repeat — A violation that is similar to a previously cited violation at the same company location, or at other locations of the same company, within the previous five years. It carries a maximum penalty of $165,514, but no less than $11,823 (unless also an other-than-serious violation). Note that a court said the five-year look-back is only a guide, and there's no statutory time limit.
  • Failure-To-Post — A violation of OSHA's posting requirements carries a penalty up to $16,550.
  • Failure-To-Abate — A violation cited previously but not corrected within the prescribed abatement period. It carries a $16,550 per day penalty maximum.
• Understand that the “gravity” of the violation plays a key role in penalty amount. The gravity of the violation is the primary consideration in determining penalty amounts. It is the basis for calculating the basic penalty for serious and other-than-serious violations. (Repeat and willful violations can be based on the initial serious or other-than-serious gravity-based penalty but are multiplied by five to 10 times). To determine the gravity of a violation, OSHA makes the following two assessments — the severity of the injury or illness which could result from the alleged violation AND the probability that an injury or illness could occur as a result of the alleged violation. See the OSHA Field Operations Manual (FOM), CPL 02-00-164, and the latest "Annual Adjustments to OSHA Civil Penalties" memo for details.
• Know the adjustments in penalties that OSHA is required to make based on the size of the employer. OSHA may then assign a reduction based on size of the employer. The size adjustment factor allows for the following maximum penalty reductions (except for serious willful violations, which have different percentages listed in the FOM and the Annual Adjustments memo):
  • 70 percent for employers with 1-25 employees nationwide,
  • 30 percent for employers with 26-100 employees nationwide, and
  • 10 percent for employers with 101-250 employees nationwide.
• Be familiar with OSHA’s “good faith” penalty adjustment policy. There may be up to an additional 25 percent reduction for evidence that the employer is making a good faith effort to provide a safe and healthy workplace:
  • 25 percent for having a written and implemented safety and health program.
  • 15 percent for having a documented and effective safety and health program, but with more than only incidental deficiencies.
  • No good faith reduction is given if the employer has no safety and health program or where a willful, repeat, high-gravity serious, or failure-to-abate violation is found.
• Understand that OSHA can make history adjustments up or down 20 percent, depending on a compliant or serious violative history in the past five years.
• Be aware of OSHA’s quick-fix penalty reduction. In limited circumstances, prompt abatement of a hazardous condition can be considered in determining the amount of the proposed penalties, unless the violation type is restricted from such reductions. Under the quick-fix penalty reduction, a 15-percent reduction is applied after the adjustments for history and good faith. Qualifying “quick” timeframes are listed in the FOM.
• Note that 29 U.S.C. 666 and 18 U.S.C. 1114 provide for criminal penalties in the following cases:
  • Willful violation of an OSHA standard, rule, or order causing the death of an employee may lead to punishment by a fine up to $500,000 and imprisonment up to one year, or both;
  • Giving unauthorized advance notice of an inspection to be conducted may lead to punishment by a fine up to $1,000 or imprisonment up to six months, or both;
  • Knowingly giving false information may lead to punishment by a fine up to $10,000, or imprisonment up to six months, or both; and
  • Killing of an OSHA officer while engaged in the performance of official duties may lead to a punishment specified at 18 U.S.C. 1114.
• Note further violation, penalty, and citation policies prescribed in:
  • Chapters 4 to 6 of the FOM provides penalties and debt-collection information.
  • An OSHA memo, "Annual Adjustments to OSHA Civil Penalties," updated each year that sets certain penalty adjustments and minimums.
  • An April 17, 2024, OSHA memo, "Instance-by-Instance Citation Policy for Serious, Repeat, and Other-Than-Serious Violations."
  • OSHA's Multi-Employer Citation Policy, CPL 02-00-124, about when to issue citations to creating, exposing, correcting, and controlling employers.
  • OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP), CPL 02-00-169, which does not change how penalties are calculated but prompts mandatory follow-up and referral inspections until employers are eligible to exit the program.
• Know that OSHA has six months to issue a citation. This is six months from the date when OSHA learns, or should have known, of a hazardous condition that violates an OSHA standard or the General Duty Clause.
• Post OSHA citations for 3 days or until the violation is corrected, whichever is longer.
• Exercise their right to an informal conference to discuss proposed citations. Employers may also contest citations before an independent review commission.
• Remember there’s only 15 working days to file a proper notice of contest of a citation, penalty, and/or date of abatement. This must be in writing.
• Understand that the employer's organization name and case details may appear on OSHA’s website if the employer receives a citation. For example, they may appear in OSHA’s Establishment Search page, News Releases page, Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) page, and Corporate-Wide Settlement Agreements page.
• Be aware of “failure-to-abate” violations. If an employer fails to meet an abatement date and OSHA does a follow-up inspection(s), the employer may face additional citations for failure to abate. These penalties are calculated “per day."
• Be familiar with employer rights and responsibilities. OSHA publishes a booklet, “Employer Rights and Responsibilities Following a Federal OSHA Inspection."