March 28, 2019
- MEMORANDUM FOR:
- REGIONAL ADMINISTRATORS
- THROUGH:
- LOREN SWEATT
Acting Assistant Secretary - FROM:
- PATRICK J. KAPUST, Acting Director
Directorate of Enforcement Programs - SUBJECT:
- 2019 Annual Adjustments to OSHA Civil Penalties
- Purpose.
The penalty information included in this memorandum is intended to supplement the penalties and debt collection information found in Chapter 6 of the Field Operations Manual (FOM). Tables included in this Memorandum reflect penalty amounts for calendar year 2019, and correspond to penalty amounts found in OSHA Information Systems (OIS). This information will be updated annually to ensure access to current penalty information.
- Background.
On November 2, 2015, Congress enacted the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, Public Law 114-74, sec. 701 (Inflation Adjustment Act), which further amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 as previously amended by the 1996 Debt Collection Improvement Act (collectively, the "Prior Inflation Adjustment Act"), to improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and maintain their deterrent effect. The Inflation Adjustment Act required agencies to: (1) adjust the level of civil monetary penalties with an initial "catch-up" adjustment through an interim final rule (IFR); and (2) make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation, no later than January 15 of each year.
The cost-of-living adjustment multiplier for 2019, based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the month of October 2018 (not seasonally adjusted), is 1.02522. To compute the 2019 annual adjustment, the Department multiplied the most recent penalty amount for each applicable penalty by the multiplier, 1.02522, and rounded to the nearest dollar.
The adjustment factor of 1.02552 will remain consistent across the minimum and maximum penalties set forth in the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the FOM. Specific penalty amounts, as of January 23, 2019, are detailed in the charts.
- Minimum and Maximum Penalty Amounts.
Table 1 summarizes the minimum and maximum amounts for proposed civil penalties:
Table 1: Maximum and Minimum Amounts for Civil Penalties
Type of Violation Penalty Minimum Penalty Maximum Serious [$947] per violation $13,260 per violation Other-Than-Serious $0 per violation $13,260 per violation Willful or Repeated $9,472 per violation $132,598 per violation Posting
Requirements$0 per violation $13,260 per violation Failure to Abate N/A $13,260 per day unabated beyond the abatement date [generally limited to 30 days maximum] - Gravity Based Penalty Amounts.
The gravity of a violation is defined by the Gravity Based Penalty (GBP).
- A high gravity violation is one with a GBP of $13,260.
- A moderate gravity violation is one with the GBP ranging from [$7,577 to $11,366].
- A low gravity violation is one with a GBP of [$5,683].
For serious violations, the GBP shall be assigned on the basis of the following scale in Table 2:
➢ Severity + Probability = GBP
Table 2: Serious Violations
Severity Probability GBP Gravity OIS Code High Greater $13,260 High 10 Medium Greater $11,366 Moderate 5 Low Greater $9,472 Moderate 5 High Lesser $9,472 Moderate 5 Medium Lesser $7,577 Moderate 5 Low Lesser $5,683 Moderate 1 For other-than-serious violations, there is only minimal severity.
Table 3: Other-Than-Serious Violations
Severity Probability GBP Minimal Greater $1,000-$13,260 Minimal Lesser 0 - Serious Willful Penalty Reductions.
The reduction factors for size for serious willful violations shall be applied as shown in Tables 4 and 5:
Table 4: Serious Willful Penalty Reductions
Employees Percent reduction 10 or fewer 80 11-20 60 21-30 50 31-40 40 41-50 30 51-100 20 101-250 10 251 or more 0 ➢ The reduction factor for history shall be applied.
➢ The proposed penatly shall then be determined from Table 5.Table 5: Penalties to be Proposed for Serious Willful Violations
Total percent reduction for size and/or history High Gravity Moderate Gravity Low Gravity 0% $132,598 $113,652 $94,715 10% $119,338 $102,287 $85,244 20% $106,078 $90,922 $75,772 30% $92,818 $79,556 $66,301 40% $79,558 $68,190 $56,829 50% $66,299 $56,837 $47,358 60% $53,040 $45,461 $37,886 70% [$39,780] $34,096 $28,414 80% $26,519 $22,730 $18,944 90% [$13,260] $11,366 [$9,472] If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact Arthur Buchanan in the Directorate of Enforcement Programs at (202) 693-1850.
[Corrected 4/2/2019]