In case you missed it, the “business-friendly” Congress gave OSHA a gift this past Christmas.
Buried within the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 is a provision requiring OSHA to significantly increase its civil penalties. A one-time “catchup adjustment” will be based on the percentage difference between the Consumer Price Index in October 2015 (to be released later this month) and October 1990 – resulting in a penalty increase of about 80%. This means the $7,000 limit on serious violations would increase to $12,600 and the $70,000 limit on willful and repeat violations increases to $126,000. If OSHA had applied this increase to fiscal-year 2014 penalties, which totaled $143.6 million, the total would have jumped to $258.5 million. After this initial adjustment is made, OSHA will be required to adjust penalties every year using the annual percentage increase in the CPI.