The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced it will hire 55 new investigators and eight additional technicians to assist employers with wage and hour questions and to investigate allegations of employers violating federal work and pay requirements.
The additions will expand the number of investigation team members hired in 2020 to 147 investigators and 36 technicians.
Investigators conduct investigations to determine employers’ compliance with applicable federal labor laws.
Technicians provide front-line support for these efforts, including receipt and evaluation of incoming complaints and providing compliance information for employers, employees and other stakeholders.
Announcing the new hires, Wage and Hour Division Administrator Cheryl Stanton said in a statement, “In addition to enforcing long-standing protections, WHD now enforces the paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave protections in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. With more than 60 million workers eligible for relief, our team continues to deliver when the workforce needs us most.”
Mission to educate and enforce wage and hour laws
In Fiscal Year 2019, WHD investigations resulted in the division collecting $322 million in wages owed to workers, the highest amount ever collected during a single fiscal year.
Over the same period, the division also conducted a record-setting 3,700 public events to educate employers and workers about workplace rights and responsibilities as part of its mission to promote and achieve compliance with the nation’s labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation’s workforce.
WHD enforces federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The division also enforces the paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and many other employment standards and worker protections mandated by federal law.
For more information
Our 75-minute on-demand workshop “Unpacking the Families First Coronavirus Response Act for Employers” provides up-to-date guidance on how to interpret what the Paid Sick Leave and expanded Family Medical Leave provisions of the FFCRA actually mean; and what employers need to do now to comply with the new mandates.
Employment law expert Max Muller addresses:
- How (and when) paid sick leave and expanded FMLA benefits laws interact
- Calculating paid sick leave for your part-time workers
- What if an employee refuses to come to work out of fear COVID-19 exposure?
- How overtime hours factor into calculating wages for paid sick leave or FMLA
- What are the penalties for not complying with the FFCRA?
- How intermittent leave under traditional FMLA factors into the FFCRA
- Bonus Handout – 6 QUALIFYING REASONS FOR PAID SICK LEAVE
After this event, you’ll be able to update your payroll procedures, revise FMLA policies and modify benefits programs to comply with the FFCRA.
Additional detail and registration are here.