Surprise, surprise – the Department of Labor (DOL) continues to ratchet up its efforts to enforce wage and hour laws.
The agency just submitted its 2012 budget proposal, and while it would reduce the DOL’s overall discretionary spending by 5% from current levels, those cuts won’t come out of the Wage and Hour Division (WHD).
The WHD is asking for more resources that it’ll put toward the regulation and enforcement of employment laws. It’s requesting $241 million, an increase of $13.3 million from the estimated 2011 budget.
The WHD plans to add 107 full-time staffers and use them to support its initiative to detect and deter organizations from misclassifying employees as independent contractors, as well as strengthen federal and state efforts to enforce labor violations arising from misclassification.
Investigations will also increase. The WHD says it expects to conduct an additional 3,250 investigations, which will mainly target industries with higher rates of violations.
These industries include:
- construction
- child care
- home health care
- grocery stores
- janitorial businesses
- poultry and mean processing
- business services, and
- landscaping.
Recordkeeping requirements
The DOL is also moving forward with its plans to update Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) recordkeeping requirements.
It’s considering a rule that would require employers to notify their workers in writing of their rights under the FLSA.
The rule would force companies to perform a written classification analysis for every exempt employee. Then the employer would have to share that analysis with the worker.
