Small Biz alert ..We're from the Government and we're here to help you!!

Employers should be aware that the Department of Labor is increasing its Wage and Hour Division's enforcement efforts. The Department of Labor has stated that protection of workers' rights is a "top priority" for the DOL. As evidence of that, DOL has added 250 additional wage-and-hour investigators. The intent is to pay prompt attention to complaints about wage-and-hour violations. According to the Secretary of Labor, in the past three months alone, the DOL has collected more than $2 million in back wages owed to more than 500 workers.

Areas of concern to employers include:

• federal minimum wage, overtime, and record keeping requirements;

• how to determine which work-related activities are considered "hours worked" and consequently hours for which employees must be paid overtime pay;

• whether a particular employee is exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Act's minimum wage and overtime pay requirements; and

• contract labor or employee status.

This post written by Attorney Tom Solomon - Houston, TX