Wage-Hour Investigator Hiring Plans Signal DOL Enforcement Drive

The U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division will have 100 new investigator openings in the coming weeks in an effort to beef up ranks that have fallen to their lowest level in more than a decade.

The move to boost staffing comes after the agency said in January it had reached a pact with the National Labor Relations Board to collaborate on investigations and share information on potential violations of law, specifically targeting independent contractor misclassification and retaliation against workers.

Together, the efforts are some of the first evidence of a shift in enforcement posture at the wage and ...