Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, MSPB NEWS—Board updates maximum civil monetary penalty to $1,365, (Jul 21, 2025)

By WK Editorial Staff

The change, codified as an amendment to 5 C.F.R. § 1201.126, takes effect upon the final rule’s publication in the Federal Register.

A final rule soon to be published in the Federal Register by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) adjusts the level of civil monetary penalties (CMPs) in regulations maintained and enforced by the agency with an annual adjustment under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (2015 Act) and Office of Management and Budget guidance (OMB).

The change, codified as an amendment to 5 C.F.R. § 1201.126, takes effect upon the final rule’s publication in the Federal Register, after which all violations for which CMPs are assessed will be assessed at the adjusted penalty level regardless of whether the violation occurred before the effective date.

Updated amount. The final rule amends the CMP listed in 5 U.S.C. § 1215(a)(3), which was established with the enactment of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CRSA). The CMP was last amended by section 106 of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012, which provided for a CMP not to exceed $1,000. The final rule also amends the CMP authorized in 5 U.S.C. § 7326, which was established by section 4 of the Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 (Hatch Act), which provided for a CMP not to exceed $1,000. The MSPB issued a final rule increasing the maximum CMP allowed under both the CRSA and Hatch Act to $1,330 for the year 2024. For 2025, applying the OMB’s annual adjustment multiplier of 1.02598, the new maximum penalty under the CRSA and the Hatch Act is $1,365.00.

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