On July 14, 2025, the Department of Labor updated its enforcement guidance for OSHA investigators to reduce the financial penalties for workplace safety violations, and to expand the definition of “small employers” for the purpose of determining penalties for workplace safety violations. Specifically, the guidance would:

• Allow businesses with 25 or fewer employees to qualify for a penalty reduction level of 70% (previously only available to those with 10 or fewer employees)
• Expand the penalty reduction for employers without a history of serious, willful, repeat, or “failure-to-abate” OSHA violations
• Expand a penalty reduction for employers who “immediately take steps to address or correct a hazard,” and changes the time frame in which fixing the hazard could be considered “immediate.”

Impact:

OSHA’s guidance change is an employer-friendly, not a worker-friendly, shift in enforcement. Further reduce penalty burdens on smaller employers risks further weakening any incentive for employers to proactively address workplace safety before hazards or accidents occur. OSHA penalties are already arguably not high enough to provide a meaningful deterrent, particularly to larger employers, but even smaller employers should be held responsible for unsafe working conditions. Penalties that are strong enough to deter violations are particularly important when enforcement resources are stretched thin – OSHA itself cites that they have only about 1 compliance officer per  thousands of workplaces and tens of thousands of workers covered by their enforcement mission.