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OSHA Penalties and the General Duty Clause

Serious violations run past $16,000 each and willful or repeated ones past $165,000 — adjusted annually — and the General Duty Clause reaches recognized hazards no specific standard covers, from heat to workplace violence.

LegalWorkplace.com Staff Reviewed Sep 2026 · 9 min read

OSHA Penalties and the General Duty Clause

The amounts

Per violation: serious/other-than-serious above $16,000; willful or repeated above $165,000; failure-to-abate accrues per day — all adjusted annually for inflation.

The multiplier

Repeated classification looks back five years across the company — an uncontested citation anywhere prices future ones everywhere.

The catch-all

The General Duty Clause — §5(a)(1) — reaches recognized serious hazards with no specific standard: heat, ergonomics, workplace violence.

Not legal advice. Educational guide to general U.S. employment law. Rules vary by state — consult an employment attorney for specific cases.

The classifications and amounts

Other-than-serious

Violations unlikely to cause death or serious harm — same statutory maximum as serious (above $16,000 per violation at recent adjustments), though often assessed lower or at zero.

Serious

Substantial probability of death or serious physical harm the employer knew or should have known about — the workhorse classification, per violation, per instance.

Willful

Intentional disregard or plain indifference — above $165,000 per violation at recent adjustments, with a statutory minimum, and criminal referral possible when a willful violation kills.

Repeated

Substantially similar to a violation finalized within five years, company-wide — same ceiling as willful. The classification that turns compliance history into a pricing schedule.

Failure to abate

Per day beyond the abatement date, at the serious-violation rate — the one that compounds while paperwork sits.

How penalties adjust

Two adjustments run in opposite directions. Inflation: amounts index every January under the 2015 adjustment act — the figures above are the 2024 table's, and each subsequent January has raised them; treat osha.gov/penalties as the live source. Reductions: the area director discounts for size (up to 70% for the smallest employers), good faith (a real safety program, up to 25%), and clean history. The practical read: a small employer with a documented program pays a fraction of list price for the same citation — the cheapest penalty reduction is the program you built before the inspection. Negotiation at the informal conference stacks on top.

The General Duty Clause

Where no specific standard exists, §5(a)(1) fills the gap: employers must keep the workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. OSHA must prove four elements — a hazard existed, it was recognized (by the employer's own documents or industry knowledge), it was serious, and a feasible abatement existed. The modern applications are the ones without standards: heat illness (the basis of a national emphasis program while rulemaking proceeds), workplace violence in healthcare and late-night retail, and ergonomic hazards. Note the trap in "recognized": your own safety committee minutes, audit findings and incident reports are the government's favorite recognition evidence — which is never a reason not to write them, but always a reason to close what they open.

Managing exposure

Penalty exposure is managed years before a citation: a functioning safety program (good-faith credit, willfulness defense), closed-loop hazard tracking (every identified hazard gets a dated fix — open items age into willful evidence), deliberate contest decisions (each accepted citation prices repeats for five years, company-wide), and abatement verified in writing by the deadline (failure-to-abate is the only penalty that grows daily). After any citation, fold the fix into the written program and train on it — the same event handled as a program improvement reads as good faith; handled as paperwork, it reads as the first count of the next willful citation.

Frequently asked questions

What are the current OSHA penalty amounts?

OSHA adjusts penalties every January for inflation. As of the 2024 adjustment, serious and other-than-serious violations ran up to $16,131 each, willful and repeated up to $161,323, and failure-to-abate up to $16,131 per day — with further annual increases since (the 2026 figures are higher still; osha.gov/penalties always carries the current table).

What makes a violation 'willful'?

Intentional disregard of the OSH Act or plain indifference to employee safety — proven with the employer's own paper: prior citations for the same hazard, internal audits flagging it, employee complaints ignored, or a manager's 'we know, we'll fix it later.' Willful violations involving a fatality can also be prosecuted criminally.

How does a 'repeated' violation work?

A substantially similar violation cited within five years of a final order — anywhere in the company for federal-plan employers, not just the same site. This is why contest decisions matter: every accepted citation is a five-year pricing precedent.

What does the General Duty Clause require?

Section 5(a)(1) requires furnishing a workplace 'free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.' OSHA uses it where no specific standard exists — heat stress, workplace violence in healthcare and retail, ergonomic hazards — proving the hazard existed, was recognized (by the employer or industry), was serious, and had a feasible abatement.