The Rising Cost of Non-Compliance: Federal Penalties Continue To Increase

Jan 16, 2025 8:30:00 AM

The penalties for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and other federal laws enforced by the US Department of Labor (DOL) have gone up again. They increased by 2.6%, effective January 15, 2025.

The annual inflation adjustments are tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), so the change in DOL's civil money penalties parallels the overall rate of inflation as measured by the change in prices of food, housing, transportation and other goods and services.

This year's penalty adjustments include the following:

Law	Type of Violation	Maximum Penalty 2024	Maximum Penalty 2025
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)	FMLA notice-posting requirements	$211	$216
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)	Violation of the prohibition against keeping employee tips	$1,373	$1,409
	Repeated or willful violations of the minimum wage and overtime provisions	$2,451	$2,515
	Child labor violations	$15,629	$16,035
	Child labor violations that cause serious injury or death	$71,031	$72,876
	Willful or repeated child labor violations that cause serious injury or death	$142,062	$145,752
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act)	Serious and other-than-serious violations and posting-requirement violations	$16,131	$16,550
	Willful violations and repeated violations	$161,323	$165,514
	Failure-to-abate violations (per day)	$16,131	$16,550

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

Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced annual increases for penalties under the Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA), effective January 2, 2025. These increases were about 1%.

Below are the offenses with the old and new penalties:

Type of IRCA Violation	Old Fine	New Fine
Substantive Form I-9 violations – minimum	$281	$288
Substantive Form I-9 violations – maximum	$2,789	$2,861
Knowingly employing undocumented – 1^st order	$698 to $5,579	$716–$5,724
Knowingly employing undocumented – 2^nd order	$5,579 to $13,946	$5,724–$14,308
Knowingly employing undocumented – subsequent	$8,369 to $27,894	$8,586–$28,619
Document Fraud (USC 1324c(a)((1)-(4)) – 1^st order	$575 to $4,610	$590–$4,730
Document Fraud (USC 1324c(a)((1)-(4)) –subsequent order	$4,610 to $11,524	$4,730–$11,823
Document Fraud (USC 1324c(a)((5)-(6)) – 1^st order	$487 to $3,887	$500–$3,988
Document Fraud (USC 1324c(a)((5)-(6)) – subsequent order	$3,887 to $9,718	$3,988-$9,970
Prohibition of indemnity bonds	$2,789	$2,861

With an expected increase in ICE I-9 audits and ICE raids, employers should pay careful attention to their I-9 forms and can conduct an internal I-9 audit to remediate, as much as possible, any I-9 errors. Such an internal I-9 audit could save an employer money if audited by ICE.

Reach out to your FrankCrum contacts as needed.

The Rising Cost of Non-Compliance: Federal Penalties Continue To Increase

Jan 16, 2025 8:30:00 AM

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