Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Courts, Department of Labor See Increasing Wage Complaints

3 min read

Missy McJunkins Duke, an attorney with Cross Gunter Witherspoon & Galchus of Little Rock, said she’s seen an increase in wage-and-hour lawsuits in recent years in Arkansas, and one possible cause is the number of workers laid off during the recession.

(Click here to read about how misclassification of workers can lead to lawsuits and complaints against employers.)

Melanie McClure, an attorney with Cox Sterling & McClure in North Little Rock, agreed. Thousands of employers made big workforce reductions during the recession, she said, and many of them are still reluctant to take on full-time employees but nonetheless want to add to their capacity.

"And one way to do that is with independent contractors, and if you’re legitimately using an independent contractor, that’s great. It’s a very effective way to increase production without adding to staff," McClure said.

"The problem is when that independent contractor really becomes an employee. When you are fully controlling what they do, they have probably become an employee."

McClure said while she has seen an increase in wage-and-hour suits, they had begun proliferating even before the recession started.

"I’ve been practicing employment law since 1997, and it seems to have always been increasing," McClure said. "So I would not say that the last few years have been anything new, but it’s just been an area of litigation that has been consistently growing, at least as long as I’ve been paying attention."

According to federal court records, there were 6,782 FLSA suits filed in 2010. By comparison, there were only 1,870 in 2001.

In Arkansas, there were 47 such suits in 2010, compared with 13 in 2001.

But recession or no recession, a worker who has been laid off "has nothing to lose by turning around and suing their employer. So every time there is a reduction in the workforce, you raise your risk in terms of litigation," McClure said.

Not all wage-and-hour violations result in lawsuits. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division investigates complaints against employers, often resolving the issue without getting the courts involved.

Robert Darling, district director for the Arkansas WHD, said there was a sharp increase in wage-and-hour complaints in 2010.

  • In 2008, the office handled 286 complaints;
  • In 2009, there were 325 complaints; and
  • In 2010, that number jumped to 553.

Nationwide, the Wage & Hour Division has seen fluctuation in the number of complaints it has received in recent years. WHD logged:

  • 29,085 complaints in 2001;
  • 31,786 complaints in 2004; and
  • 23,845 complaints in 2008, the most recent year for which numbers were available.

So while it’s hard to say with certainty that wage-and-hour complaints always follow recessions, the recent increase in Arkansas would seem to indicate a correlation between the two, Darling said.

"But I once had a boss years ago who told me the opposite was true, that people are more likely to file a complaint if they felt secure in their job and thought they could get another one," he said.

In 2009, the DOL announced it would add 250 field investigators to the WHD. Darling said his office has added eight workers in the last two years, to a total of 18 full-time staffers.

Send this to a friend