Department of Labor Updates

The Department of Labor recently announced its Wage and Hour Division is planning to add 100 investigators to its team.  As one of the nation’s most essential labor law enforcement agencies, this division is responsible for enforcement efforts such as;

• Investigating if employers are paying workers correctly and affording them their rights
• Reviewing worker misclassification as independent contractors
• Ensuring employers classify employees correctly as exempt or non-exempt for overtime
• Calculation of overtime correctly
• Supporting efforts to combat worker retaliation
• Promoting compliance through outreach and public education initiatives

Employers need to be knowledgeable about the Wage and Hour guidelines and areas that most often cause confusion include;  

• Mis-classifying non-exempt employees as exempt and not paying overtime
• Failure to include bonuses when calculating overtime rates
• Not keeping adequate records of employee’s time worked

The Wage and Hour Division works hard to educate employers and provides many resources.  A new digital resource for guidelines regarding youth employment, computing overtime, recordkeeping, as well as other timekeeping and wage topics.  The digital reference guide can be accessed at;  ​https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/Digital_Reference_Guide_FLSA.pdf
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