Recently the U.S. Department of Labor revamped its enforcement data website, http://ogesdw.dol.gov/, adding some snazzy new map displays showing inspection and violation data from OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Of more interest to readers of this blog willl be the site’s statistics regarding the Wage and Hour Division‘s enforcement activities.
According to the site’s interactive piecharts, the agency conducted 68,644 enforcement actions. (The chart, unfortunately, does not say over what period, though if the chart is based upon the large data set available from the site this may represent FY2007 to present.) Of these, the Department found violations in 50,364 cases, and no violation in just 18,280. In other words, the Department found violations in roughly 73% of all of its compliance actions. These findings resulted in findings of back wages due totaling $681,151,513, or about $13,524.57 per case in which a violation was found.
Like crunching numbers? You can download the Wage & Hour Division’s of all concluded compliance actions since FY 2007 here. The dataset includes, among other things, the names and addresses of employers, whether any violations were found, the back wage amount, the number of employees due back wages, and civil money penalties assessed.
If you find anything noteworthy in the data, feel free to share in the comments!