No Adjustment for 2026 Penalties
Background
On November 2, 2015, Congress enacted the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, Public Law 114-74, sec. 701 (Inflation Adjustment Act), which further amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 as previously amended by the 1996 Debt Collection Improvement Act, to improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect. The Inflation Adjustment Act required agencies to (1) adjust the level of civil monetary penalties with an initial “catch-up” adjustment through an interim final rule (IFR); and (2) make subsequent annual adjustments for inflation no later than January 15 of each year.
HIOSH Law, specifically §396-10(o) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) mandates an annual increase in civil penalties to align them with the civil penalties set by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA).
No Adjustment for 2026 Civil Penalties
The US Department of Labor normally increases its civil monetary penalties every year to keep up with inflation1. But for 2026, there will be no increase at all. The reason is because the federal funding lapsed in October-November 2025, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics was unable to release the required October 2025 inflation data.
By federal law, the adjustment must be based on that specific month’s data, and no substitute is allowed. Because the data doesn’t exist, the 2026 update is cancelled, and agencies must keep using the 2025 penalty amounts. A full review of penalties will resume in 2027.
On April 17, 2026, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell T. Vought issued OMB Memorandum M‑26‑11, informing agencies that the penalty inflation adjustment for 2026 was canceled due to the absence of October 2025 CPI‑U data. OMB instructed agencies to continue using the 2025 civil monetary penalties as applicable. As a result, under HIOSH law and OMB guidance, the penalty adjustments remain unchanged.
