By: Daniel Finerty

The U.S. Department of Labor has updated its guidance on penalty and debt collection procedures in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Field Operations Manual in an effort to minimize the burden on small businesses and increase prompt hazard abatement in response to cited conditions.

The goal of the modification is to separate out the penalties to be assessed on small employers from those assessed on larger businesses that have greater resources, provided those small businesses are working toward compliance in good faith.

By lowering penalties on small employers, OSHA hopes to support the entrepreneurs and still hold them accountable by giving them the tools they need to keep employees safe and healthy on the job.

The new policy implements penalty reductions for small employers to incentivize them to invest resources in compliance and hazard abatement. According to OSHA, a penalty reduction level of 70%, which was previously only applicable for businesses with 10 or fewer employees, will now be expanded to include businesses that employ up to 25 employees. The revisions also provide for a 15% penalty reduction for employers who immediately take steps to address or correct a hazard, further incentivizing abatement efforts by small employers.

Likewise, OSHA explained the updated policy reduction efforts will also apply for  employers of all sizes “without a history of serious, willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate OSHA violations.” Also, for those employers who have never been inspected by OSHA or its state partners and for employers who have been inspected in the previous five years but had no serious, willful, or failure-to-abate violation, both groups are eligible for a 20% penalty reduction.

While citation penalties issued by OSHA before July 14, 2025, will still be considered under the previous penalty structure, the new guidance will apply to open investigations where penalties have not yet been issued.

For more information about these changes, please contact your Lindner & Marsack, S.C. attorney at (414) 273-3910.