The Feds May Be Slacking Off, But the States Aren’t
Posted on 18-Aug-08 by The Timekeeper
The news has been full lately of talk about how the federal government under the Bush administration has been apparently “slacking off” in wage and hour investigations and enforcement. Now, whether they’ve actually been letting scofflaws get away with it (as their critics claim) or they’ve simply been focusing on cases where they can obtain the biggest bang for the buck (as their supporters claim) still seems to be an open question.
One thing that’s absolutely not in question, though, is that the states are cracking down. And some of ‘em are cracking down hard.
For instance, according to an article on PressofAtlanticCity.com, the latest New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development statistics show the state increased back wage collections on behalf of employees by 7% in fiscal year 2008, as compared to fiscal year 2007. Besides that, New Jersey revoked the registrations of 13% more contractors than in the previous year for violations of wage and hour laws.
Employment law experts in the state attribute the increases to a more aggressive crackdown on unscrupulous employers and initiatives on the part of New Jersey to open better lines of communication with the general workforce in the state (meaning they hear more complaints, sooner).
Meanwhile, New York State in 2007 uncovered a 37% increase in minimum wage underpayments in 2007 compared to prior years. How? Well, about half the state’s DOL field investigators are bilingual or multi-lingual, which makes it easier for them to communicate with immigrant workers and third-party witnesses who might not speak English well. They’ve begun interviewing employees away from the worksite (and away from possible intimidation by the employer). And they’ve started conducting more surveillance at night and on weekends (when a lot of that undocumented overtime takes place — what a concept!).
The results aren’t so surprising, then, are they?
Those statistics also serve to underscore a point I’ve made before. Counting on flying under the radar or slipping through the net because the feds are “too busy” to pay attention to little ol’ you is a pretty risky way of doing business.
And what with law firms increasingly trolling for lucrative wage and hour complaints among disgruntled workers, it really does seem more and more like it would be simpler (and a lot less expensive in the long run) to simply pay your workers correctly the first time around, eh?
Just a little more food for thought…
No Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
