OSHA updates penalty guidance for small employers

Effective July 14, OSHA updated its penalty guidance for small employers, impacting businesses with 25 or fewer employees. The new policies are outlined in the Penalties and Debt Collection section of the agency’s Field Operations Manual, and include:

• Expanding a 70 percent penalty reduction for other-than-serious and serious violations to include businesses employing up to 25 employees. The reduction previously applied only to businesses with 10 or fewer employees.
• A 15 percent penalty reduction for employers who immediately take steps to address or correct a hazard.
• Expanding the penalty reduction for employers without a history of serious, willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violations. Under the revisions, employers who have never been inspected by federal OSHA or an OSHA State Plan, as well as employers who have been inspected in the previous five years and had no serious, willful, or failure-to-abate violations, are eligible for a 20 percent penalty reduction.

Penalties issued before July 14, 2025, will remain under the previous penalty structure. Open investigations in which penalties have not yet been issued are covered by the new guidance.