OSHA Fines and Penalties: How Much Do Citations Actually Cost? (2026)

OSHA fines are smaller than most people expect and larger than most people plan for. A single serious citation tops out at $16,550 per violation under 2025 penalty amounts. A willful or repeat violation can reach $165,514 per violation. For an employer who gets inspected after a workplace fatality and receives 12 willful citations, that math reaches nearly $2 million before any other costs hit.

But the fine itself is usually not the biggest expense. Attorney fees, abatement costs, lost productivity, workers’ compensation claims, and reputational damage from public enforcement records often exceed the penalty by a significant margin.

OSHA adjusts maximum penalty amounts every year under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. Any dollar figure you see online may be out of date. Verify current maximums directly at osha.gov/penalties before making any compliance or legal decisions based on penalty amounts.

Violation Categories and What They Cost

OSHA classifies citations into five categories. Each carries a different penalty range. The figures below reflect 2025 maximum amounts. OSHA adjusts these annually for inflation, so confirm current figures at osha.gov/penalties.

Serious Violation

A condition where there’s a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew or should have known about the hazard. This is the most common citation type. Maximum penalty: $16,550 per violation (2025).

Other-Than-Serious Violation

A condition related to safety or health but unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm. The statutory maximum matches the serious category at $16,550 per violation (2025), but OSHA typically proposes much lower amounts. Minor paperwork violations often result in small or zero dollar penalties.

Willful Violation

The employer knew about the hazardous condition and intentionally did not correct it, or showed plain indifference to employee safety. Maximum penalty: $165,514 per violation (2025). Minimum: $11,524. Criminal referral is possible when a willful violation causes a worker death.

Repeat Violation

OSHA found a substantially similar violation at the same employer within the past five years, and the prior citation became a final order. Maximum: $165,514 per violation (2025). The repeat classification can apply even if the specific equipment or location is different, as long as the violation type is substantially similar.

Failure to Abate

The employer did not correct a cited violation by the abatement deadline. Maximum: $16,550 per day beyond the abatement date (2025). This one compounds quickly. An employer who ignores a correction deadline can accumulate failure-to-abate penalties that exceed the original citation amount within weeks.

OSHA adjusts penalty maximums annually for inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. Verify current amounts at osha.gov/penalties before relying on any specific figure.

How OSHA Calculates the Proposed Penalty

The maximum is rarely what gets proposed. OSHA compliance officers use a formula that considers four factors before writing the initial penalty number on the citation.

Gravity is the primary factor. OSHA assesses both the severity of the potential injury (how bad if it happens) and the probability that the injury actually occurs given the conditions. High severity plus high probability produces the highest gravity score, which drives the penalty toward the maximum. Low probability of injury, even for a serious violation category, drives the number down significantly.

Employer size gets an automatic reduction for smaller companies. Employers with 25 or fewer employees typically receive a 60 percent reduction. Employers with 26 to 100 employees typically receive a 40 percent reduction. Employers with 101 to 250 employees receive a 20 percent reduction. Large employers receive no size reduction.

Good faith rewards employers who have implemented meaningful safety programs. Documented safety programs, active training records, and evidence that the employer was making progress on the cited hazard can generate reductions up to 25 percent. Employers with no safety program at all get no reduction here.

Citation history matters too. Prior OSHA citations within the past three years can increase the proposed penalty by up to 10 percent.

Apply those adjustments and a small employer with an active safety program, no prior citations, and a low-probability serious violation might receive a proposed penalty of $500 to $2,000 on a citation with a $16,550 statutory maximum. That same violation at a large employer with prior citations and no safety program could hit $15,000.

The Informal Conference: Your Most Valuable 15 Days

Many employers don’t know they can negotiate before accepting a citation. Within 15 working days of receiving a citation, you can request an informal conference with the OSHA area director. You don’t need an attorney for this step, though having one doesn’t hurt.

Informal conferences routinely produce penalty reductions of 15 to 50 percent. OSHA will often reduce penalties in exchange for:

• Agreeing to correct the violation faster than the cited abatement deadline
• Committing to additional safety measures beyond the minimum required
• Accepting the citation without formal contest (saves OSHA the cost of litigation)
• Reclassifying a willful to a serious (if facts support it) in exchange for a quick settlement

The informal conference is also your chance to present evidence that challenges the citation. If you believe OSHA misclassified the violation category, misidentified the applicable standard, or got the facts wrong, bring documentation to the conference.

If you get cited, call the OSHA area director’s office before that 15-day window closes. Many employers let it expire without realizing they had options.

Formal Contest Through the OSHRC

If informal conference doesn’t produce an acceptable result, you can file a formal Notice of Contest with the OSHA area director within 15 working days of receiving the citation. This transfers the case to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent federal agency separate from OSHA.

Filing a formal contest puts the citation on hold. The abatement deadline and penalty are stayed while the case is pending. This is where employers typically bring employment law attorneys who specialize in OSHA defense.

Most contested cases settle before a formal hearing. The settlement process at OSHRC often produces better results than informal conference, particularly for willful citations or large proposed penalties where the stakes justify attorney fees.

The formal process takes time. Simple cases resolve in months. Complex cases involving multiple citations or novel legal questions can take years.

State Plan States: Different Rules Apply

22 states and jurisdictions operate their own OSHA-approved state plans. These cover private sector employers within their borders instead of federal OSHA. State plans must maintain penalty levels “at least as effective” as federal OSHA, but they can go higher.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) operates under a separate penalty schedule with different maximum amounts and different calculation methods. Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries (WISHA) and Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division each have their own structures.

If your operations are in a state plan state, the federal OSHA penalty figures listed above don’t directly apply to you. Check the relevant state agency’s website for current penalty amounts. The states section on this site covers which states operate their own plans. For current state penalty schedules, go directly to the state plan agency’s enforcement page.

What Triggers OSHA Inspections

Not every inspection starts with a complaint. OSHA initiates inspections through a priority-based system:

Imminent danger situations come first. If OSHA receives a report of a condition likely to cause death or serious injury before normal enforcement can address it, inspectors respond immediately.

Fatalities and catastrophic injuries (hospitalizations of three or more workers) trigger mandatory inspections. OSHA requires employers to report these events within 8 hours for fatalities and 24 hours for catastrophic injuries. The inspection follows automatically.

Worker complaints about specific hazards are the most common source of non-incident inspections. Complaints can be filed online, by phone, or in writing. Formal complaints from a union or group of workers carry more weight and typically trigger on-site inspections. Informal complaints may result in a phone call to the employer first.

Referrals from other agencies, such as state environmental regulators, fire marshals, or law enforcement, can trigger OSHA inspections when the other agency identifies a workplace safety concern during their own work.

Programmatic inspections target high-hazard industries regardless of complaint history. OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting program uses injury and illness data to identify establishments with above-average rates and schedule inspections accordingly. Construction sites near OSHA area offices also get walked by compliance officers as part of planned inspections.

Follow-up inspections verify that prior citations were abated. If you received a citation and corrected the violations, a follow-up inspection should be uneventful. If you didn’t correct them, you’re facing failure-to-abate penalties on top of the original citation.

What the Top Cited Violations Actually Cost in Practice

Fall protection under 29 CFR 1926.501 has been the most cited OSHA standard for more than a decade. Citations for fall protection violations often involve multiple items in a single inspection, because a construction site with fall protection problems usually has several locations where workers are exposed. A midsize contractor receiving 15 fall protection line items in one inspection, each proposed at $10,000, faces a $150,000 initial proposed penalty. After size and good faith adjustments, that number often settles in the $60,000 to $90,000 range.

Hazard communication violations under 29 CFR 1910.1200 typically carry lower proposed penalties because the gravity score is lower. Missing safety data sheets or unlabeled containers create a serious violation, but the immediate probability of injury is lower than an unprotected floor opening. Expect proposed penalties in the $3,000 to $8,000 range per item for hazcom violations at a mid-size employer.

Respiratory protection violations under 29 CFR 1910.134 can run higher if workers are actually exposed to regulated substances. An employer whose workers are using half-face respirators without a written respiratory protection program, without medical evaluations, and without fit testing has three distinct violations. If the exposure is to silica or lead, OSHA’s gravity assessment goes up sharply.

Lockout/tagout violations under 29 CFR 1910.147 often result in willful classifications, particularly when OSHA finds an employer has received prior LOTO citations. A repeat willful LOTO citation on a manufacturing employer with multiple machines missing written procedures can generate total proposed penalties well above $500,000.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: OSHA Penalties, osha.gov/penalties. OSHA Citation and Penalty Procedures, osha.gov/enforcement/citation-penalty. OSHA Severe Violator Enforcement Program, osha.gov/enforcement/severe-violator. DOL OSHA Maximum Penalties, dol.gov/general/topics/workhours/osha-penalties. Penalty figures reflect 2025 maximums and are adjusted annually under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act.