OSHA Increases Eligibility for Reduced Fines

To help encourage smaller companies to comply with regulations and invest resources into compliance and abatement, OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor made some updates to their penalty reduction eligibilities.

New OSHA Penalty Reduction Guidelines

• 25 or Fewer Employees – The main change has been to add companies of 25 or fewer employees to eligibility for a 70% reduction in penalties. Until now, the reduction was only available to companies of 10 or fewer.
• 26-100 Employees – If your company has 26-100 employees you may be eligible for a 30% reduction.
• 101-250 Employees – Companies with 101-250 employees may be eligible for a 10% reduction.
• Immediate Action – If you take immediate action to correct a hazard, you may be eligible for a 15% reduction in penalties.
• Newly Inspected Companies – If your company has never been inspected by federal OSHA or a state OSHA agency you will be eligible for a 20% reduction in penalties.
• Historical Compliance – If your company has not had a serious, willful or failure-to-abate violation within the past 5 years, you will also be eligible for a 20% reduction.

All changes in reduction criteria apply only to violations found after July 14, 2025.

When Reductions May Not Be Available

In their press release, OSHA said they still have the right to withhold reductions if they don’t advance the goals of OSHA. According to the OSHA Field Operations Manual, the following instances may NOT be eligible for a penalty reduction:
– The citation is related to a fatality or a catastrophe;
– The violation is considered egregious or novel;
– Your company has received a willful or repeat violation within the past 5 years related to a fatality;
– Your company has failed to follow the reporting requirements for a fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye;
– Your company is either in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, or the citation meets the requirements for inclusion in the program;

– Your company has numerous recordkeeping violations related to a large number or rate of injuries and illnesses;
– The proposed failure to abate notification is based on a previous citation and the employer failed to submit abatement verification for that;
– Your company has not paid past OSHA penalties to the point it was referred to debt collection; or
– Your company has not responded to previously issued citations.

For more information on how OSHA handles inspections and citations, you can consult the OSHA Field Operations Manual.