House Hearing Exposes Difficulties in Complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act

Employment Law

This week, witnesses at a House hearing on the Fair Labor Standards Act raised concerns about the lack of guidance from the Department of Labor that employers need to comply with the law and noted that amendments to several House appropriations bills could debar well-intended employers from federal contracts if they have an inadvertent violation in the past five years.  The hearing in the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections centered on a December 2013 GAO report that found FLSA lawsuits have increased over 500 percent from 1991 to 2012, and concluded that better guidance would likely limit confusion over certain FLSA requirements and potentially reduce the need for costly litigation.  According to Paul DeCamp, former Wage and Hour Administrator, DOL has "closed its doors to employers" by failing to issue FLSA compliance guidance and has taken a "heavy-handed" enforcement approach that does not distinguish willful violations from those stemming from simple legal misinterpretations.  In addition to the increased threat of litigation, DeCamp said misinterpreting the FLSA could result in the debarment of federal contractors because amendments to several House appropriations bills would ban them from renewing or receiving new contracts if they have been found to have violated the FLSA in the past five years.  While Democrats on the subcommittee said Congress' time would be better spent on cracking down on wage theft and raising the minimum wage, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) acknowledged: "There's no question that there probably needs to be some rebalancing here, in terms of giving employer guidance."