Connecticut Employment Law Blog : Connecticut Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Daniel Schwartz : Stamford, Hartford New Haven, CT

As part of the government's efforts to improve transparency, the United States Department of Labor has released version 1.0 of its searchable database of enforcement actions.  (H/T Workplace Prof). 

The searchable website is still in its early stages so don't expect a lot just yet. But even so, you can start to get a sense of the scope of their work and where certain states fit in.

For example, under the Wage & Hour Division, the database reports 276 cases (some with payments, some not, mainly for overtime violations) in Connecticut.  You can download the Connecticut list here. 

Oklahoma, a state that has about the same population as Connecticut, has some 383 records reported. 

That would seem to confirm the theory of some that the U.S. Department of Labor often defers some wage enforcement actions to the state Department of Labor.

In any event, as the Department of Labor adds resources to this site, it will definitely be useful to draw trends from the data and analyze it for lessons that employers can learn from this site. 

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Yesterday, I talked about keeping wage/hour lawsuits and potential claims in perspective. While it is a "hot topic", I also highlighted the fact that the numbers of claims do not support a "stampede at the courthouse" theory that some have advocated. Wage/hour issues should not be ignored, but they are also just part of a number of issues that may keep human resources personnel up at night. 

Today, Jon Hyman over at the Ohio Employer's Law Blog expands upon that further and concludes that the size of a potential class action claim against an employer is an important reason why such issues should not be ignored:.

The danger posed by wage and hour lawsuits, however, isn’t in the number of cases filed. The danger is that most wage and hour cases are filed as class or collective actions, which prove to be very costly and carry with them enormous exposure for employers. You are naive if you don’t think that every plaintiffs attorney asks about wage and hour practices as part of their client intake.

Additionally, the Department of Labor just announced the hiring of 250 new wage and hour investigators. Every employer is a target because no employer does wage and hour perfectly. And, even the tiniest slip can lead to a multi-million dollar claim. Do you need a better reason to get a handle on your wage and hour practices sooner rather than later?

So, Jon's post leads to a good introduction to a  question to the readers. What employment law issue or topic keeps you up at night?

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