Inflation Fuels Penalty Increases For Violations Of Federal Workplace Laws In 2024

February 21, 2024

What's New

To account for inflation, various federal workplace enforcement agencies have been raising the civil penalties they charge for violations of the laws that they enforce. The Inflation Adjustment Act mandates these yearly adjustments. The White House Office of Management and Budget instructed executive branch agencies to apply a cost-of-living adjustment multiplier of 1.03241 for 2024.

What It Means

The Labor Department, EEOC, and the Justice Department have announced penalty increases for employment- and immigration-related infractions under their purview. For example:

• willful or repeated violations of the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime provisions are now punishable by a fine of $2,451 per offense (up from $2,374 in 2023),
• willful H-1B visa violations that result in the displacement of a U.S. worker are now punishable by a fine of $65,661 per offense (up from $63,600 in 2023), while H-1B retaliation is now punishable by $9,380 per offense (up from $9,086 in 2023),
• unlawful employment of undocumented immigrants under the Immigration Reform and Control Act is now punishable by a fine ranging from $698 to $5,579 per individual (up from $676 to $5,404 in 2023),
• document fraud under IRCA is punishable by a fine ranging from $575 to $4,610 per document (up from $557 to $4,465).

What You Should Do

Watch for reports from CWC about additional penalty increases that could be coming from other federal agencies.

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