One result of the current business downturn is increased employee complaints about unfair compensation or other discrimination. As it takes just one complaint, justified or not, to trigger a probe. That means getting ready for a visit from your friendly DOL investigators. Here’s how to handle things if (or these days, when) they show up.
With a knock on the door, visitors in the lobby, and the flash of a badge, another agency investigation begins. Here, courtesy of BLR’s Employee Compensation in [Your State] program, is what to expect.
Many HR investigations are initiated by complaints, but since complaints are confidential, the name of the worker, the full nature of the charges, and even whether a worker complaint exists, or the probe is an agency initiative, will likely not be disclosed.
What Happens When an Investigation Occurs?
During an investigation, DOL representatives gather data on wages, hours, and other employment conditions or practices in order to determine compliance with the law.
A typical investigation consists of the following steps:
- Visitation and inspection of the business under investigation
- Examination of up to 3 years of employee and company records to determine which laws or exemptions apply
- Examination of payroll and time records, and taking notes or making transcriptions or photocopies essential to the investigation
- Interviews with certain employees in private to:
- Verify the employer’s payroll and time records
- Identify workers’ duties to decide if exemptions apply
- Confirm that minors are legally employed
- Verify the employer’s payroll and time records
- Meeting with the employer or an authorized representative to reach decisions and commit the employer to corrective actions if violations have occurred
What are your competitors offering workers these days? Check your state’s edition of BLR’s exclusive Employee Compensation in [Your State] program to find out. Try it at no cost or risk! Click for info.
Retaliation Prohibited
If you are investigated, issue this important reminder to all management personnel
involved: The FLSA prohibits employers from discharging or discriminating against any employee who files a wage and hour complaint or who provides information during a DOL investigation. As a result, employers should be cautious: Do not discourage in any way employee cooperation with wage and hour investigations and do not respond negatively to any employee who files a complaint.
What’s the Best Defense?
You can’t stop the investigation, but you can show that you’ve complied with the law. We asked our editors what they recommend for a guide to lawful compensation management.
They came back with a classic BLR program, used by thousands of companies for more than 20 years, Employee Compensation in [Your State]. The [Your State] refers to the fact that a separate edition is published for each of 43 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia. So, for example, if you live in Illinois, Employee Compensation in Illinois is what you receive.
Each edition of Employee Compensation in [Your State] service contains these key elements:
▪ Recommended Rate Ranges for hundreds of jobs, localized for your state and region. Based on annual surveys and official data, the program provides minimum, midpoint, and maximum for both exempt and nonexempt positions. These rates are local for your state, region, even some cities. You shouldn’t pay the same in Manhattan, Kansas, as you do in on Manhattan Island in New York. This program makes sure you don’t.
▪ A to Z State and Federal Law Comparisons. Comp and benefits are regulated by a tangle of laws. Employee Compensation offers an alphabetically arranged set of analyses on how these laws apply to common topics, Look up “ERISA” or “overtime pay” or “workers’ compensation” and you instantly have a plain-English explanation of how the controlling laws apply to you.
▪ A Full Job Descriptions Program. Employee Compensation offers a complete tutorial for setting up a job descriptions program. Many ADA-compliant sample descriptions are provided, ready to copy and use.
Don’t just look at national data for salary guidance on hundreds of jobs when you can have it specifically for your state. It’s in BLR’s famed Employee Compensation in [Your State] program. Try it on us! Here’s how.
▪ Updating at No Extra Cost. The program price includes six updates a year (which others charge extra for), plus annual survey reports of exempt and nonexempt compensation and benefits, including the detailed results of BLR’s yearly pay budget survey. A monthly newsletter offers even more updating. Click the links below, and you can see samples of the program and newsletter, as well as a full table of contents of what’s included.
The program is priced affordably, at about $1.50 a working day. That’s coffee money for just about every form of information most managers need to run a competitive and efficient comp/benefits program.
You can check out the entire program in your own office for up to 30 days, with no need to buy. (We even pay return postage.) Just click here, and we’ll be happy to set things up.
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