Looking Back -- What the Wage and Hour Division Did In 2023 By the Numbers

Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics.
— Dean Schlicter

The Wage and Hour Division (“WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued some statistics about its 2023 enforcement efforts. See https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data#:~:text=The%20Wage%20and%20Hour%20Division,more%20than%20163%2C000%20workers%20nationwide. Let’s look at the numbers.

The Division claimed  to have recovered the sum of $274 million (“M”) for 163,000 workers in 2023. That included $121M for workers in building services. That shows a responsiveness of the current Biden Administration to the Janitors for Justice union movement. The next biggest tranche went to construction workers, yet another union constituency. Contrast that with a mere $6.8M for largely unorganized agricultural workers, more likely to be abused by employers than their unionized brethren.

WHD conducted 5,500+ outreach events in 2023. That is consistent with the educational mission of the Division. They claim 450,000+ participants.  I would guess that is the registered numbers for many virtual events, but not necessarily real attendees.

WHD has a call-in number (1-866-4-US-WAGE) which in FY2023 logged in more than 988,000 calls. WHD provided telephone support in over 100 languages, showing that immigrant wage issues remain a focus.

WHD has a system to locate workers and distribute their back wages found due. It is called Workers Owed Wages or the WOW system. In FY2023 over $26.3M was funneled to 3,972 workers. Good job, Brownie.

Finally, WHD claims that the average back wage recovered is $1,273 as a result of agency-initiated or targeted investigations. This is the highest average since at least 2009.