Overtime Wage Complaints Hit Record Level

If you think you've been short-changed on your overtime pay, you need to call me immediately.  I and a few of my colleagues who specialize in overtime pay disputes handle these types of cases often.  And....as this article describes....the practice of employers not paying proper overtime is occurring more and more.  Sometimes the practice can be wide-spread throughout an organization-- such as the massive class action against Walmart that resulted in Walmart paying to workers millions of past due overtime pay.

From the article:

The number of workers filing complaints against their employers under the Fair Labor Standard Act has skyrocketed, a report published by the law firm Seyfarth Shaw shows. Since 1993, the number of federal case loads relating to misclassification of workers, failure to pay overtime and miscalculated overtime for non-exempt workers has risen to a new all-time record of 7,006 in 2011 from 1,457 cases in 1993. 

And this year is on track to beat that, with 7,064 cases already filed. Lack of clarity in overtime laws and lucrative settlements for plaintiffs are just some of the reasons why the number of reported wage abuse cases is going up. In addition, a weak economy has pushed corporations operating with a slimmed-down staff to squeeze more out of their employees. 

Findings from other studies echo the data. In a report cataloging wage violations in New York City, the National Employment Law Project found that 77 percent of the study's surveyed low-wage workers who had worked more than 40 hours in one week did not receive their required overtime pay; the number rises to 93 percent for workers who worked more than 10 hours in one day. 

The study also found that 21 percent of workers reported that they were being paid less than the required minimum wage. Only non-white U.S. born workers did not report a minimum wage violation. The average low wage worker loses out on $58 per week and $3,000 per year due to wage violations by employers, according to the study.

OSHA not doing its job

OSHA has come under significant criticism in a report from the Department of Labor’s inspector general for inadequately enforcing safety laws against high risk employers. As you may know, OSHA is the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and they are tasked with enforcing the country’s safety and health laws as it relates to employers and the conditions under which employees work.

You can see more information about this report at Workers’ Comp Insider here. You can also see a copy of the report here.

Specifically, the report indicated that OSHA did not take the appropriate enforcement action in 29 sample cases-and those employers subsequently experienced 20 fatalities, of which 14 deaths shared similar violations. This basically means that it is quite possible that if OSHA did its job then at least 14 people might still be alive today.