The cost of not complying with federal laws and regulations enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, U.S. Department of Labor, and other executive branch agencies will be increasing again in 2018, pursuant to the requirements of the 2015 federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act (the “Penalties” Act).
Invoking the Penalties Act, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum in December 2017 directing executive branch departments and agencies to increase the civil penalties for 2018 under the laws they enforce. While the 2018 percentage increase is modest, coming in at just over 2%, it is worth repeating that the civil penalties for many of these laws and regulations more than doubled after the Penalties Act was enacted.
While the actual cost of any one violation is not necessarily noteworthy for larger employers, to the extent the violation is not an isolated incident and is repeated across the company, the fines can quickly add up.
NT Lakis attorneys have prepared a guide highlighting examples of 2018 penalty increases made by select federal agencies with workplace enforcement authority. Please note the examples provided are for illustrative purposes only. Links to each agency’s Federal Register notice that detail all of the penalty increases are included in the discussion of each agency in our guide.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.