Obama Administration Now Has 1,000 Government Investigators Targeting Businesses for Minimum Wage Violations
Under President Obama, government officials are aggressively enforcing the law against employers who fail to pay the minimum wage, deny overtime compensation and misclassify workers as contractors.
That was the central message Labor Secretary Tom Perez delivered before an audience of approximately 100 attendees last week at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.
When Obama took office, there were 730 investigators in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. Today, there are more than 1,000.
Perez, who previously served as a Center for American Progress trustee, used the Dec. 4 speech to call for a higher minimum wage and stronger overtime laws to ensure that employees “receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”
He also made it clear that “the law is only as effective as the political will of those enforcing it.”
U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez (Photo: Chuck Myers/Newscom)
At the direction of Obama, the U.S. Labor Department is “back in the enforcement business, putting more cops on the beat and giving them more resources to protect working families who bear the greatest burden when labor standards are violated,” Perez said.
At the outset of the administration, there were 730 investigators in the department’s Wage and Hour Division. Today, there …read more