DOL Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustments (Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act)

Current understanding

The Department of Labor is statutorily required to publish annual inflation adjustments to civil monetary penalties across its enforcement programs (OSHA, Wage and Hour Division, EBSA, MSHA, OFCCP, etc.) using the October CPI-U published by BLS. For 2026, DOL announced the adjustment is cancelled because BLS did not publish October 2025 CPI-U data due to a funding lapse, and the statute provides no alternative calculation method — so maximum penalty amounts remain at 2025 levels for the coming year. Effect for employers: penalty caps do not rise in 2026; effect for workers and enforcement: real-value erosion of deterrence until the next adjustment cycle.

Evidence log

• 2025-04-28 — Protecting America’s Workers Act: cross-connection with protecting-americas-workers-act: PAWA would statutorily raise OSHA civil and criminal penalty ceilings, altering the baseline that DOL’s annual inflation adjustments apply against. (novelty: 3)
• 2026-05-15 — Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees; Implementation of Federal Court Judgments: cross-connection with flsa-white-collar-exemptions-2024-rule-vacatur: Both are DOL Wage and Hour Division regulatory actions affecting the FLSA enforcement baseline in 2025-2026 — one setting exemption thresholds, the other setting penalty amounts. (novelty: 2)

Open questions

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