The most costly corporate mistakes in the U.S.

One of the key aims of the enterprise risk management process is to help businesses identify and assess potential threats to their organization. Some threats may be deemed relatively low risk, but others can turn into extremely costly issues. 

These costly corporate mistakes may actually be more commonplace than organizations realize. For example, there have been over 17,000 corporate fines over $1 million issued to US businesses in the last five years alone. 

To spotlight which corporate threats can be the most costly to organizations, we have researched data from the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, and analyzed every corporate fine issued in the United States from 2020-2024.

The key findings from the research are:

• There have been more than 180,000 corporate fines issued in the US between 2020 and 2024, totaling more than $345 billion
• 3M Company has been issued with the costliest fines, adding up to $18.6 billion
• The most common group of corporate offenses are safety related offenses, but the most costly are financial offenses
• The corporate mistake most likely to land you with a fine is a workplace safety or health violation
• There has been nearly $58 billion worth of fines for off-label or unapproved promotion of medical products offenses
• Companies based in California have received the highest number of fines, and the highest sum of all fines
• West Virginia is the state with the most fines per business located in the state, while Arizona has the least

The most common corporate offenses

* Number of corporate fines ranked by offence group

Our findings revealed that the most common type of corporate offenses in the last five years have been safety related. There have been over 88,000 fines handed out to US businesses for safety violations, with the most common type of offenses being workplace safety or health violations, motor vehicle safety violations, and railroad safety violations. Nearly half of all recorded offenses were safety related offenses.

1 in 5 corporate fines were issued for employment related offenses, the most common of which is wage and hourly pay violations. 15% came from healthcare offenses, followed by 9% for environmental offenses. 

Consumer protection, financial, government contracting, and competition related offences are far less common, making up just 7% of all fines.

The most costly corporate offenses

* Cost of corporate fines ranked by offence group

Although financial offenses are only the sixth most common type of offense out of the nine groups, the fines for these violations accounted for the highest combined cost, totaling nearly $70 billion over a five year period. The average cost per fine for a finance related violation is $27.8 million. 

Safety related offenses had the second highest total cost accumulated in fines at $66.3 billion. Although safety violations are the most common group of offenses, they have the second lowest average fine fee at $750k. 

The third most costly fines have been for healthcare related offenses. Healthcare violations have totaled nearly $62 billion in fines from 2020 - 2024, with an average cost of $2.2 million per fine. 

Competition related offenses have the highest average fine cost. Violations such as price-fixing or anti-competitive practices, trade violations, and agribusiness violations, cost companies on average just under $50 million per offense. 

The costliest corporate violations for U.S. businesses

* Cost of corporate fines ranked by violation

Digging deeper into the type of violations that are most costly to businesses, our research revealed that violations for off-label or unapproved promotion of medical products have cost US companies the most since the turn of the decade. 

These violations have been punished with $57.8 billion worth of fines, at an average fine of $761k per offense. That’s also the highest average fine for any violation with 10+ recorded fines in the five year period analyzed. 

Fines for investor protection violations added up to $46.1 billion, the second highest total for any individual offense. There have been nearly 2,000 fines for investor protection violations since 2020.

The third most costly mistake is product safety violations. These have a whopping average fine of $403k, totaling $32.6 billion in fines. 

Also in the top five are consumer protection violations, and utility safety violations, with fines totaling $25.2 billion and $21.4 billion respectively. 

The companies with the most expensive corporate fines

* Highest total cost of fines by company

Based on all of the corporate violations committed by US businesses from 2020 - 2024, 3M Company, formerly known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, has the unfortunate distinction of accumulating the most expenses in corporate fines. They were penalized 48 times, with all of their fines adding up to $18.7 billion. 

3M have been on the receiving end of two of the 10 biggest fines during the time period analyzed. The third biggest fine was for $12.5 billion, given to 3M in 2024, following allegations it was responsible for contaminating thousands of public water systems with dangerous PFAS chemicals.

They were also on the wrong end of the 10th largest fine, this time for $6 billion. This came in 2023 when 3M agreed to pay $6 billion in cash and stock to settle multi-district litigation involving more than 250,000 claims that the company's combat earplugs failed to protect the hearing of servicemembers.

Not too far behind in second place is Johnson & Johnson. The pharmaceutical company has been issued with $18 billion in fines across 24 violations. The most expensive of those fines cost Johnson & Johnson $8.9 billion, as a result of their announcement that its subsidiary, LTL Management LLC, re-filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to obtain approval of a reorganization plan that will equitably and efficiently resolve all claims arising from cosmetic talc litigation against J&J and its affiliates in North America. 

In third place is PG&E Corp. The gas and electric company have lost $16.1 billion in corporate fines, including the largest settlement since 2020. In June 2020 a federal bankruptcy judge approved PG&E's $59 billion reorganization, which included a $13.5 billion settlement of class action lawsuits associated with a series of wildfires in northern California that killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

Also in the top five are pharmaceuticals company Bayer, and FTX Trading Ltd. Bayer has paid $13.2 billion in fines, including a $9.6 billion settlement for tens of thousands of claims that the weedkiller Roundup, produced by its subsidiary Monsanto, causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Now bankrupt FTX Trading Ltd, was infamously ordered to pay $12.7 billion in monetary relief to FTX customers and victims of FTX's fraud. 

The companies with the highest number of total violations from 2020 - 2024 are as follows:

• Union Pacific - 697 violations

• Berkshire Hathaway - 503 violations

• CSX - 438 violations

• Holcim Group - 387 violations

• Norfolk Southern - 377 violations

• Genesis HealthCare - 282 violations

• United States Steel - 274 violations

• Communicare Health - 260 violations

• Alpha Metallurgical Resources - 237 violations
• Sev.en Energy - 229 violations

The industries with the most corporate fines

* Highest total cost of fines by industry

The industry that has been hit with the most expensive fines is the financial services sector. There have been nearly 1,700 violations against financial services companies, with all of the costs adding up to $64.5 billion.

The pharmaceuticals industry also gets hit hard by corporate fines. The average fine per violation of $242.5 million is the highest industry average, with all fines adding up to over $52 billion.

Other sectors that have amassed more than $20 billion in corporate fines are utilities and power generation, miscellaneous manufacturing, wholesalers, and retailing. 

Healthcare service companies are the worst offenders, with 7,533 violations. They are followed by mining and minerals companies, retailers, building materials companies, and the railroads sector. Of the 49 industries analyzed, information services is the industry with the lowest number of violations at 8, followed by, maybe surprisingly, the tobacco industry with 19.  

The states with the most corporate fines 

* Number of corporate fines by state

Our research also analyzed which states have the best and worst behaved businesses. To do so, we used the location provided for the company via the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker. If a location for the fined company wasn’t available, we used the location of their parent company’s headquarters at the time of the penalty announcement. 

Companies based in California make the most corporate violations. From 2020 - 2024, there have been nearly 20,000 recorded fines for California based companies, making up 12% of all fines with a company location listed.

The second highest is for Texas. There have been over 16,000 fines over the five year period analyzed for Texas based companies, 10% of all listed fines. Also in the top 5 worst states for total number of fines are Illinois, New York, and Florida.

The state with the lowest number of corporate violations is Wyoming, where there have been 487 violations, making up just 0.29% of all penalties for US companies. Also in the top five best behaved states are Montana, Vermont, North Dakota, and Alaska.

The states with the costliest fines 

* Sum of corporate fines by state

As well as having the highest number of total violations, California based companies also have the largest bill for corporate fines. All of the corporate violations added together account for more than $64 billion in fines, with eight violations penalized with a fine of more than $1 billion. The average fine per violation is $3.2 million, also the highest of all 50 states.

The top 5 states with the highest sum of corporate fines also includes New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Illinois. Companies in these five states have been billed with a higher sum of corporate fines than the other 45 states combined. 

As well as the lowest number of violations, Wyoming based companies also have the lowest total expenses in corporate fines at just under $39 million. They also have the lowest average fine per violation at $80k. 

The states with the most corporate fines per 1,000 businesses

* Number of corporate fines per 1,000 local businesses

To compare the findings by state on a more even playing field, we also weighted the number of violations by the number of businesses registered in each state, based on data available from the most recent US Census. 

When doing this, we found that for every 1,000 businesses based in West Virginia, there are 77 corporate violations, the highest businesses to violations ratio for any state. West Virginia also has the fourth highest sum of fines per business located in the state.

The second worst state for ratio of violations is Iowa, where there are 44 penalties issued for every 1,000 local businesses. The rest of the top 5 are made up of Illinois, Rhode Island, and Ohio.

The state with the best behaved businesses on average is Arizona. For every 1,000 businesses located in Arizona, there are just two violations per year. 

Arizona is followed by Utah, Florida, Montana, and South Carolina as the states with the best ratio of violations to local businesses. 

The states with the highest cost of corporate fines per 1,000 businesses

* Highest cost of corporate fines per 1,000 local businesses

Finally, we also analyzed which states had accumulated the largest total amount in fines per business located in the state. Rhode Island was found to have the worst ratio of violation fees per business. The total violation fees of $5.5 billion for Rhode Island based companies weighted by the number of local businesses in the state is $221k.

By comparison, the state with the lowest number of fines spread across each local business is Wyoming, with an average violation fee of $1.9k. Compared to the worst state which is Rhode Island, their average violation fee per company is 115 times higher than Wyoming. 

Methodology

• Data on corporate violations has been collected via the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, and covers 180,959 recorded violations
• The time period analyzed was 2020 - 2024, for all violations penalized by US authorities (this also includes non-US based businesses that have been fined by US authorities)
• Categorization of offense groups and types, as well as the company industry, is based on the data provided by the Violation Tracker
• For the location of the offending company, this is based on the state provided for the offending company by the Violation Tracker, or in the event that a location is unavailable for the company, the location provided for the parent company HQ was used
• For the companies with the most violations, the parent company has been primarily used which can account for multiple companies, or in the event that a parent company isn’t listed, the offending company has been used
• The number of businesses located in each city is taken from the US Census Statistics of US Businesses report
• Data collected and is correct as of May 2025