OSHA’s 2026 inflation-adjusted penalties are official. The numbers went up 3.1% across the board.
Willful violations: $165,514 per citation. Serious violations: $16,550 each. Failure-to-abate: $16,550 per day the hazard continues.
For facilities under Process Safety Management (29 CFR 1910.119), the math compounds fast. A single PSM audit finding rarely produces one citation. Stale P&IDs, outdated engineering standards, PHAs referencing superseded RAGAGEP, missing MOC documentation — each one is a separate line item.
BP’s Texas City refinery learned this the hard way: $21.3 million in OSHA fines from a single incident investigation. That was 2005 dollars. At 2026 rates, the equivalent exposure is significantly higher.
The enforcement posture has tightened too. OSHA’s 2026 agenda signals expanded inspections in high-risk industries — energy, chemical manufacturing, and construction at the top of the list.
The facilities most exposed aren’t the ones with bad safety cultures. They’re the ones with good engineers who are stretched too thin to keep 15-year-old standards current while running day-to-day operations.
If your last comprehensive RAGAGEP review was before 2024, the gap between what your documents say and what the current standards require is wider than you think. That gap has a price tag now: $165,514 per finding.
When was the last time your facility did a full cross-reference of your PHA basis documents against current RAGAGEP?