Employers need to know that hidden in the Bipartisan Budget Act is Section 701, “Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015” that requires OSHA to increase its civil penalties for the first time since 1990.
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Section 701 includes a onetime “catch-up adjustment” that will happen in 2016 with penalties increasing up to a cap of 150 percent. So, basically, a penalty now set at $10,000 could increase to $25,000. The Agency will adjust—or increase—civil penalties through an interim final rulemaking no later than August 1, 2016.