New OSHA Guidance On Increased Fines

On August 2, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released its updated field operations manual to explain how OSHA inspectors must calculate fines, which are rising as much as 78 percent. Association staff have determined that in general, the updated manual shows fines for different violations increasing across the board by 78 percent, not only for willful, repeat, serious, failure-to-abate violations—as previously known—but also for "low" and "moderate" gravity fines.

For instance, the maximum fine for a violation rated as "low gravity" is now $5,345—up from $3,000—and a "moderate gravity" serious maximum fine is now $10,689—up from $6,000. OSHA previously released information explaining how its maximum penalties for more egregious violations were increasing, i.e., serious violation maximum penalties rise from $7,000 to $12,471, and willful or repeated violation maximum penalties increase from $70,000 to $124,709.