# How Much Are Cal/OSHA Penalties Reduced After Citation?

Half of the other-than-serious penalty dollars Cal/OSHA proposed in 2020–2021 were later removed by appeals and settlements. Serious penalties gave up 29%. Willful penalties did not move at all. And the reductions are size-blind — the small-employer break happens before the citation is mailed, not after.

Source: https://compliantca.com/guides/cal-osha-penalty-reductions/
Published: 2026-08-23
Updated: 2026-08-23
Publisher: CompliantCA — not a law firm; this is not legal advice.

[How Cal/OSHA penalties are calculated](/guides/how-cal-osha-penalties-are-calculated/) covers the formula that sets a penalty. This page covers what happens to it afterward: how much of the proposed amount survives appeals and settlements. CompliantCA computed the answer from the federal enforcement data, using California citations issued in **2020 and 2021 — cohorts old enough that most cases have concluded** — and the answer differs sharply by classification.

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## The discount, by classification {#by-classification}

![Bar chart showing the share of proposed penalty dollars removed after citation for California citations issued 2020 to 2021: 50% of other-than-serious dollars, 29% of serious, 30% of repeat. Willful citations are excluded from the chart because none of the eight in the cohort was reduced.](/static/charts/ca-penalty-discount-by-class.svg)

| Classification | Citations | Proposed | Standing now | Removed | Citations reduced | Reduced to $0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other-than-serious | 18,630 | $23.1M | $11.7M | 49.6% | 39.1% | 5.8% |
| Serious | 5,423 | $46.0M | $32.6M | 29.1% | 58.1% | 0.7% |
| Repeat | 277 | $2.5M | $1.8M | 29.9% | 30.7% | 1.1% |
| Willful | 8 | $0.4M | $0.4M | 0% | 0% | 0% |

Two patterns sit inside the totals. Other-than-serious citations are reduced less often (39%) but lose the most dollars — small penalties get zeroed or cut deeply when they are challenged. Serious citations are reduced *more* often (58%) but by smaller fractions — the dollars mostly survive. And willful penalties do not move: none of the cohort's eight was reduced.

## The reductions are size-blind {#size-blind}

| Employer size (§336's bands) | Serious citations | Dollars removed |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 employees | 1,515 | 26.4% |
| 11–25 | 955 | 30.9% |
| 26–60 | 834 | 28.7% |
| 61–100 | 499 | 28.7% |
| More than 100 | 1,620 | 30.2% |

A 10-person shop and a 1,000-person plant give up nearly the same share on appeal. The small-employer advantage is real, but it lives in the [issuance formula](/guides/how-cal-osha-penalties-are-calculated/) — §336(d)(1)'s up-to-40% size discount — not in the appeal process. By the time a citation is mailed, size has already done its work.

## How to read these numbers {#how-to-read}

- **The cohort choice is the honesty mechanism.** Recent years show smaller reductions only because their cases are still open — the [yearly penalties analysis](/guides/cal-osha-citations-by-year/) shows the gap widening as cohorts age. 2020–2021 is the closest thing to a final answer the data offers.
- **"Removed" measures dollars, not wrongdoing.** A reduction can mean a reclassified violation, a settlement, a withdrawn item, or an employer who showed the condition was already fixed. The data records the amounts, not the reasons.
- **The window to start this process is short**: 15 working days from receipt to appeal — the full sequence is in [what happens after an inspection opens](/guides/after-a-cal-osha-inspection-opens/). Whether to appeal any specific citation is a question for your safety officer or attorney, not a statistics page.

## Methodology {#methodology}

CompliantCA computed this analysis from the [U.S. Department of Labor enforcement dataset](https://dataportal.dol.gov/) (the OSHA Information System), which includes Cal/OSHA because California operates an OSHA-approved State Plan. Scope: citation line items on California inspections with issuance dates in 2020–2021 (headline tables) and 2020–2025 (context), excluding deleted records and rows missing either penalty field. "Proposed" is the dataset's initial penalty; "standing now" is its current penalty as retrieved 2026-08-21 — a lower bound on final reductions for any case still open. Size bands follow §336(d)(1). The chart's data appears in the adjacent table. Cal/OSHA's own statewide summaries are at [DIR's citation statistics pages](https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Citation-statistics.html).

A statistic says what usually happened, not what will happen in any case — and nothing here is legal advice.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much are Cal/OSHA penalties reduced on appeal?

In the federal enforcement data for California citations issued 2020–2021 — cohorts old enough for most cases to have concluded — appeals and settlements removed 49.6% of other-than-serious penalty dollars, 29.1% of serious, and 29.9% of repeat. Willful penalties did not come down: of eight willful citations in the cohort, none was reduced.

### Do small employers get bigger reductions on appeal?

No. Across §336's own size bands, serious citations issued 2020–2021 gave up a nearly flat 26–31% of proposed dollars regardless of employer size. The size discount happens at issuance — §336(d)(1) subtracts up to 40% for the smallest employers before the citation is mailed — not in the appeal.

### How many Cal/OSHA citations get reduced to zero?

In the 2020–2021 cohorts, 5.8% of other-than-serious citations that carried a penalty ended at $0, against 0.7% of serious citations. Full elimination is uncommon, and rarer the graver the classification.