The U.S. Department of
Labor (DOL) has announced that in 2007, its Wage and Hour Division recovered $220,613,703
in back wages—the highest amount ever— on behalf of 341,624 workers. These back
wage collections exceeded the previous record levels from 2003 by 3.8 percent.
In addition, the division assessed more than $10.3 million in penalties last
year.
Here are some of the
recovery figures, by statute: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The DOL
recovered $180.7 million in minimum wage and overtime back wages for
approximately 311,000 employees, along with $3.9 million in FLSA penalties. Out
of these recovered back wages, nearly $16 million was collected for overtime
exemption violations involving roughly 12,000 employees. The most frequent
exemption violation in 2007 involved the administrative exemption, in which the
employee’s primary duty was not “the performance of office or non-manual work
directly related to the management or general business operations of the
employer or the employer’s customers.”
The division also saw a 44.4 percent drop in FMLA claims between 2003 and 2007
Family and Medical Leave
Act (FMLA). The Wage and Hour Division collected $1,573,501 in 2007 for FMLA
violations, down sharply from a record recovery of $2,397,876 in 2003. The
division also saw a 44.4 percent drop in FMLA claims between 2003 and 2007. Termination
of employees seeking FMLA leave was the primary reason that employees filed
family and medical leave complaints last year.
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