Workers are Filing Wage and Hour Lawsuits at a Record Pace

Experts are noting that federal wage and hour lawsuits were filed at record rates throughout 2013-2014. (According to data collected by the Washington-based Federal Judicial Center, the education and research agency for the federal court system).

While the full range of data is extensive, there are some interesting pieces of information included in the analysis that can provide a clear summary of recent filing activity related to wage and hour allegations:

8,126 federal wage and hour lawsuits were filed between the dates of 4/1/13 and 3/31/14.

This was almost a 5% increase in comparison to the year previous in which only 7,764 cases were filed

Since the year 2000, the number of cases has risen 438%

Many experts predict that the wage and hour litigation epidemic will continue and even expand in the upcoming year. The rise in the number of cases is shocking, but doesn’t even take into account the number of suits filed in state courts regarding state pay practices. The number of cases is expected to continue to accelerate in the coming months as a result of multiple factors: the tightening of federally mandated standards for class certification, the possibility of an increased minimum wage, the President’s directive to the Secretary of Labor to complete revisions for regulations on white-collar exemptions, etc.

Wage and hour issues are a common problem in many workplaces. If you feel pressured to work more hours than you are paid for or if you feel that your pay is inadequate in relation to the federal wage and hour standards, get in touch with the experienced attorneys at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug & Bhowmik.