“Money makes the world go round….”

— Cabaret, a musical with lyrics by Fred Ebb

In mid-January every year, the Government publishes a notice in the Federal Register adjusting civil money penalties (“CMPs”) to account for the inflationary forces playing out over the prior year. This year the inflation adjustment was just under 1.2 percent, so the increases were muted.

As a result, the CMP Inflation adjustment lifted child labor penalties by that percentage. This left minor child labor violations with a CMP of $2,074  while more serious violations including death could lead to CMPs of $13,227 to $60,115.

General Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) CMPs were similarly raised to $2,074. These penalties can be assesed against repeated or willful violators by the Department of Labor.

However, penalties under the Contract Work Hour Safety Standards Act (“CWHSSA”) and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act (“PCA”) remain frozen because they didn’t rise enough to be rounded off to the next whole dollar. They both thus remain fixed at $27 per day per overtime violation. 

If you want to know more about changes in the CMPs, see  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/14/2021-00018/department-of-labor-federal-civil-penalties-inflation-adjustment-act-annual-adjustments-for-2021.