Overtime and Wage Enforcment Lax, Government Reports

Overtime and minimum wage enforcement actions of the Fair Labor Standards Act have gone wanting by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, according to two reports released today by the Government Accountability Office.  To review the reports click here and here.  In one inexcusable example, a truck driver was not paid overtime even though he worked 55 hours a week; his complaint sat idle for 17 months before an investigator was assigned and, when one was assigned, he did nothing until dropping the case because the statute of limitations was about to expire.  Enforcement actions declined to 29,584 from 46,758 ten years earlier.  What's the upshot: the number of investigators declined throughout the Bush Administration, the number of enforcement actions declined and, according to Representative George Miller of California, "the problem of wage theft is only getting worse because of weaker enforcement." 

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com