Wage and Hour Division Focused on Employer Assistance, Support

The federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is prioritizing guidance and programs that will help employers comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Program, the division administrator said March 17.

The division has several ways of providing guidance, said Andrew Rogers, Wage and Hour Division administrator. At the start of 2026, the division began issuing opinion letters again after a short hiatus. The six letters issued this year answer employer questions about the FLSA and FMLA, he said.

“Our opinion letter program has existed with very few short breaks in modern times,” he said. “It empowers the public with information they need to understand and comply with the laws that the department enforces.”

The WHD recently published a proposed independent contractor rule, for which employers may submit comments by April 28, Rodgers said. To benefit employers, the new rule will contain eight fact-specific examples in the final version, he said. These examples, which commenters have supported, will apply the new rule in real-life circumstances.

“Running a business in a lawful manner and complying with all of these different rules and requirements drafted 90 years ago and been amended is a difficult task,” he said at PayrollOrg’s Capital Summit conference in Arlington, Virginia. “We try to do the best we can to provide the resources that are helpful to businesses of all types.”

Another way the division is assisting businesses is through the revival of the Payroll Audit Independent Determination program, Rodgers added. The PAID program, which was created during President Trump’s first administration, let employers audit themselves and self-report any violations to the WHD, he said. Employers that do so may correct their mistakes and provide back wages to employees without being subject to costly litigation or the normal penalties that apply for wage-hour violations, he said.

The PAID program helps employees by allowing them to receive their back wages faster than through the legal system, he added. The first iteration of the program completed more than 200 cases and resulted in roughly $11 million in back wages to almost 20,000 employees, he said.

Although the division continues to assist employers, it remains primarily an enforcement agency, he said. The most common violations are related to federal overtime rules, which account for about 80% of all back wages, he said. Minimum wage violations are the second most common, followed by tip violations, he said. The division also investigates child labor issues and H1-B violations, and the WHD considers the severity of the employer violations during enforcement.

“It is not the same to say that a 17-year-old scooping ice cream for a half-hour too long should be treated as a violation that might be same as having a 13-year-old trafficked across the border and compelled to work the bone saw at a poultry production plant,” he said. “Not every violation is like that, and we want to keep employees safe while promoting the benefits of work by focusing our efforts on those serious cases and those serious violations.”

The WHD’s enforcement efforts ultimately assist employers by holding bad actors accountable, especially employers that willfully or knowingly violate the law, Rogers added. This protects employees and the employers that are trying to comply with the FLSA, FMLA, and related federal laws and regulations, he said.

“Employers that are out there not following requirements or paying employees incorrectly or violating our statutes are cheating, and they are doing it in a way that disadvantages those employers who are doing it right,” he said. “It is our responsibility to make sure that that playing field is level and that employers who are doing things right are not suffering for doing so.”