Occupational Safety and Health

January 14, 2021 – Starting January 15, 2021, HIOSH will apply the following new penalty system to penalties issued on and after January 15, 2021. For more information on the penalties see the OSHA Enforcement Memo: https://www.osha.gov/memos/2021-01-11/2021-annual-adjustments-osha-civil-penalties

Minimum and Maximum Penalty Amounts.

Table 1 summarizes the minimum and maximum amounts for proposed civil penalties:

Table 1: Maximum and Minimum Amounts for Civil Penalties

Table 1: Maximum and Minimum Amounts for Civil Penalties
Type of Violation	Penalty Minimum	Penalty Maximum
Serious	$964 per violation	$13,653 per violation
Other-Than-Serious	$0 per violation	$13,653 per violation
Willful or Repeated	$9,639 per violation	$136,532 per violation
Posting Requirements	$0 per violation	$13,653 per violation
Failure to Abate	N/A	$13,653 per day unabated beyond the abatement date [generally limited to 30 days maximum]

 

Gravity Based Penalty Amounts.

The gravity of a violation is defined by the Gravity Based Penalty (GBP).

1. • A high gravity violation is one with a GBP of $13,653.
   • A moderate gravity violation is one with the GBP ranging from $7,802 to $11,703.
   • A low gravity violation is one with a GBP of $5,851.

For serious violations, the GBP shall be assigned on the basis of the following scale in Table 2:
Severity + Probability = GBP

Table 2: Serious Violations

Table 2: Serious Violations
Severity	Probability	GBP	Gravity	OIS Code
High	Greater	$13,653	High	10
Medium	Greater	$11,703	Moderate	5
Low	Greater	$9,753	Moderate	5
High	Lesser	$9,753	Moderate	5
Medium	Lesser	$7,802	Moderate	5
Low	Lesser	$5,851	Low	1

 

For other-than-serious violations, only minimal severity is assigned.

Table 3: Other-Than-Serious Violations

Table 3: Other-Than-Serious Violations
Severity	Probability	GBP
Minimal	Greater	$1,000 – $13,653
Minimal	Lesser	$0

 

Serious Willful Penalty Reductions.

The reduction factor for history shall be applied as usual. The reduction factors for size for serious willful violations shall be applied as shown in Tables 4:

Table 4: Serious Willful Penalty Reductions

Table 4: Serious Willful Penalty Reductions
Employees	Percent reduction
10 or fewer	80
11-20	60
21-30	50
31-40	40
41-50	30
51-100	20
101-250	10
251 or more	0

 

If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact HIOSH at (808) 586 – 9116.

 

The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 as amended by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (Inflation Adjustment Act) and adopted by HIOSH 396, HRS requires HIOSH to annually adjust its civil monetary penalty levels for inflation no later than January 15 of each year. Adjustments are made by issuing a final rule issued by Federal OSHA that is effective on its date of publication in the Federal Register. HIOSH penalty law can, Act 126 signed July 10, 2017 can be found here: https://labor.hawaii.gov/hiosh/files/2017/12/ACT-126.pdf