The median penalty for killing a worker is $16,550
Summary
Fifty-five years after the OSH Act, federal OSHA has the fewest inspectors in its history — enough, at current staffing, to inspect every U.S. workplace once every 191 years. When a violation kills a worker anyway, the median federal penalty is $16,550.
The inspectors
does not inspect workplaces on a schedule; it inspects in response to complaints, referrals, and a small number of programmed sweeps, because there are not nearly enough inspectors to do anything more. As of fiscal year 2025 there were 618 federal compliance officers — the fewest in the 55-year history of the agency — plus 1,033 inspectors working for the 22 states and territories that run their own -approved plans, for a combined 1,651 inspectors covering 12 million workplaces and 155 million workers nationwide, per the AFL-'s Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, which compiles the underlying figures from the Department of Labor's own enforcement databases.
Run that staffing level against the size of the job and the AFL-'s report puts a number on it: at 1,651 inspectors, it would take federal and state a combined 191 years to inspect every workplace under its jurisdiction once. In 1991 — the year of the report's first edition — it would have taken 84 years, with 1,953 inspectors covering a workforce and business landscape roughly half the size of today's. The ratio of workers to inspectors has moved from one inspector per 54,952 workers in 1991 to one per 93,877 workers now.
View data as table
| 1991 | 84 years | 1,953 combined inspectors covering 6.5M workplaces |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 191 years | 1,651 combined inspectors (618 federal, 1,033 state) covering 12M workplaces |
The agency's budget has followed the same line. Congress funded at $629.3 million for fiscal year 2026, down from $632.3 million held flat across FY2023–FY2025, and the administration's FY2027 budget request proposes cutting it further, to $582.4 million — including the outright elimination of the $12.8 million Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, which funds worker safety training. By the AFL-'s accounting, that leaves $3.85 in budget available to protect each covered worker, versus $6.53 per worker in 1991 after adjusting for inflation.
The price of a violation
When does find a violation, the penalty is not scaled to the harm caused. A "serious violation" — one where a hazard exists that could cause death or serious physical harm — carried an average federal penalty of $4,678 in fiscal year 2025; the average across state-run plans was lower still, at $2,720. When the violation is directly tied to a worker's death, the penalty rises, but not by much in absolute terms: the median penalty for a fatality investigation was $16,550 under federal and $10,550 under state plans, per the AFL-'s compilation of 's FY2025 enforcement data.
View data as table
| Serious violation — state plans (avg.) | $2,720 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Serious violation — federal (avg.) | $4,678 | FY2025 |
| Worker's death — state plans (median) | $10,550 | FY2025, per fatality investigation |
| Worker's death — federal (median) | $16,550 | FY2025, per fatality investigation |
Criminal prosecution is rarer still. Since the OSH Act took effect in 1971, only 144 worker-death cases have ever been criminally prosecuted under it, per the same report — a number that spans 55 years and, by 's count, well over 200,000 traumatic workplace deaths.
The takeaway
- The math on inspection doesn't close. 1,651 combined federal and state inspectors, covering 12 million workplaces, means each workplace can expect a full inspection roughly once every 191 years — more than double the 84-year cycle the AFL- calculated in 1991.
- A violation is cheap, even a fatal one. The average penalty for a serious federal violation is $4,678; even when the violation kills someone, the median federal penalty is $16,550 — and criminal prosecution has happened only 144 times in 55 years.
- The trend is a budget choice, not a fixed cost. 's inflation-adjusted per-worker budget has fallen from $6.53 in 1991 to $3.85 today, and the administration's FY2027 request would cut the agency's total budget further, to $582.4 million.
Inspector, budget, and penalty figures are compiled by the AFL- Safety and Health Department from the Department of Labor's enforcement databases (IMIS/OIS) and / employment data; the 2024 fatality count is 's own published figure, not an AFL- estimate. State-plan figures cover the 22 states and territories operating -approved programs and are not included in the federal inspector or penalty totals.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2024 results (released Feb. 19, 2026) — the official count of 5,070 workplace deaths from traumatic injury and the 3.3-per-100,000 fatality rate. bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
- AFL- Safety and Health Department — Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 35th edition (April 2026) — the source for federal and state inspector counts, the 191-year/84-year inspection-cycle comparison, 's FY2026 enacted budget and FY2027 request, the $3.85/$6.53 per-worker budget comparison, FY2025 penalty averages and medians, and the 144-case criminal-prosecution count — all compiled from Department of Labor enforcement databases (IMIS/OIS) and / employment data. aflcio.org/dotj-2026
Comments
Always open. Logged-in readers can annotate paragraphs in place.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act turned 55 this April. It created a federal promise: every worker has a right to a safe job, backed by an agency with the authority to inspect workplaces and penalize employers who put people in danger. In 2024, the machinery built to keep that promise still had a lot of ground to cover — 5,070 workers died from a workplace injury, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, an average of 14 deaths a day. The agency tasked with preventing the next one is smaller than it has ever been.