# California — State OSHA plan civil penalty maximums by violation type compared with federal

For California, violation type is serious; penalty maximum is $25,000; federal maximum is $16,550; effective date is January 1, 2025; computation method is Initial base penalty of $18,000, adjusted for Extent (±25%) and Likelihood (±25%) to get Gravity-based penalty, then further adjusted for Size (up to 40% for ≤10 employees), Good Faith (up to 30%), and History (up to 10%); abatement credit of 50% available if abated before citation or within abatement period, recorded from its source on 2026-08-15.

- **Jurisdiction:** California
- **Violation type:** serious _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Penalty maximum:** $25,000 _(verified: appears in the quote below)_
- **Federal maximum:** $16,550 _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Effective date:** January 1, 2025
- **Computation method:** Initial base penalty of $18,000, adjusted for Extent (±25%) and Likelihood (±25%) to get Gravity-based penalty, then further adjusted for Size (up to 40% for ≤10 employees), Good Faith (up to 30%), and History (up to 10%); abatement credit of 50% available if abated before citation or within abatement period _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_
- **Statute citation:** Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8, § 336(c) _(our reading, not quoted from the source)_

## What the source says

> Any employer who violates any occupational safety and health standard, order, or special order, and such violation is determined to be a Serious violation (as provided in section 334(c)(1) of this article) shall be assessed a civil penalty of up to $25,000 for each such violation.

## Source

- https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/336.html

Last verified: 2026-08-15. Review by: 2027-02-11.
Part of [State OSHA plan civil penalty maximums by violation type compared with federal](https://referencesource.org/state-osha-plan-penalty-maximums/).