Department of Labor Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Annual Adjustments for 2026

What it does

As required by statute, the Department of Labor annually publishes a final rule updating the civil monetary penalties it assesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) did not publish its October 2025 Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) data due to a lapse in funding. Because the relevant law requires that annual penalty adjustments be based specifically on October CPI-U data--with no alternative calculation allowed--the 2026 adjustment is cancelled entirely.

The Employment and Training Administration's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

18 parts of Title 20, 29, 30, 41 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

20 CFR 655, 20 CFR 702, 20 CFR 725, 20 CFR 726, 29 CFR 5, 29 CFR 500, 29 CFR 501, 29 CFR 503, 29 CFR 530, 29 CFR 570, 29 CFR 578, 29 CFR 579, 29 CFR 801, 29 CFR 810, 29 CFR 825, 29 CFR 1903, 30 CFR 100, 41 CFR 50

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Employment and Training Administration has published 6 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 8 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 1290-AA46 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

Effective May 27, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Title 20 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register