The U.S. Government and Accountability Office (GAO) is stepping up efforts to increase regulation on wage theft after an investigation showed inadequate responses to complaints from disgruntled employees.
On June 23, 2009, the GAO issued a report containing guidelines on how the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) can ramp up enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) provisions, which ensures millions of workers are paid the federal minimum wage and overtime. In response to the GAO report, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced plans to hire 250 wage-and-hour field investigators, raising the division’s staff amount by more than one-third.
Recently, reports of lawsuits against restaurant owners have appeared in the news. The suits accuse employers of violating state and federal labor laws by withholding proper tip wages from its low-level employees. Some lawsuits also claim that eateries do not follow state laws requiring employees receive an additional hour of pay if they work for 10 or more hours in a day. The class action complaints, seek unpaid wages and tips, interest, and…
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