Life is true to form; records are meant to be broken.

—Mark Spitz

Break out the champagne. The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced back on October 28, 2019 that the Wage and Hour Division (“WHD)” recovered a record of $322 million in wages which were owed to workers for fiscal year 2019. That is a whole lot of pennies found in the dresser drawer! And that end of fiscal year target is why the WHD is always so anxious to wrap up its investigations by the end of the government’s fiscal year.

Incidently, the WHD has also set a record for compliance assistance events in FY 2019, which holds more than 3,700 educational outreach events. That is a lot of travel expenses for WHD.

Newly confirmed U.S Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said that “Through rigorous enforcement and robust compliance assistance, the U.S. Department of Labor is committed to ensuring the that workers receive the wages they have earned….These record-breaking numbers top the Department’s total from last year, which also set records, and confirm our ongoing commitment to strong enforcement and to providing employers with the tools they need to comply with the law.”

And WHD Administrator, Cheryl Stanton stated that “We are delivering more back wages for workers than ever before, and we are steadfastly eliminating any unfair economic advantage employers may try to gain by skirting the rules.”

See https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20191028.