Federal Employment Law Penalties Are Going Up Again

Written by Anonymous | Jan 24, 2024 3:59:01 PM

The cost of everything continues to go up; it's just going up a little more slowly than it did in recent years.

The penalties for violating the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and other laws enforced by the US Department of Labor (DOL) are going up as well - by 3%, starting January 15.

That's a good size increase but not nearly as big as last year when civil money penalties rose by 7.7% - the highest-ever annual increase since Congress passed a law in 2015 requiring the DOL to adjust its civil monetary penalties for inflation each year to "improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect."

This year's penalty adjustments include the following:

Law	Type of Violation	Maximum Penalty 2023	Maximum Penalty 2024
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)	FMLA notice-posting requirements	$204	$211
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)	Violation of the prohibition against keeping employee tips	$1,330	$1.373
	Repeated or willful violations of the minimum wage and overtime provisions	$2,374	$2,451
	Child labor violations	$15,138	$15,629
	Child labor violations that cause serious injury or death	$68,801	$71,031
	Willful or repeated child labor violations that cause serious injury or death	$137,602	$142,062
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act)	Serious and other-than-serious violations and posting-requirement violations	$15,625	$16,131
	Willful violations and repeated violations	$156,259	$161,323
	Failure-to-abate violations	$15,625 per day	$16,131 per day

The DOL also adjusted penalties for violations of certain regulations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, among others.

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