Hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and the Workforce Committee - Improving the Federal Wage and Hour Regulatory Structure

Hearing

Good morning. I want to thank Chairman Walberg for calling today's hearing to examine the important work of the Wage and Hour Division at the Department of Labor.

I also want to thank the witnesses for their participation and testimony today regarding the Department's efforts to ensure workers are fairly compensated for their hard work.

The Wage and Hour Division at the Department of Labor plays a vital role in enforcing our nation's wage and hour laws. This division is responsible for enforcing the Federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as other important laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act -- in essence, bedrock protections that have a direct impact on workers' quality of life and economic security.

Hard-working Americans who are cheated out of their wages need to be able to turn to the Department of Labor for help when their employers are refusing to give them their due.

Wage theft is most common in low-wage industries and as a result, disproportionately impacts the workers who are the least able to afford to take action on their own. For many of these lowwage workers, any diminishment of their take-home pay can make the difference between getting by and not being able to provide for their families. As a result, the Department's action on behalf of low-wage workers is particularly important.

Since 2009, the Department has recovered over $1 billion in wages to more than 1.2 million workers, including helping 108,000 low-wage workers recover nearly $83 million in back wages. This represents a 44 percent increase in the amount of back wages recovered and a 40 percent increase in the number of low-wage workers provided compensation. And just last month, the Department of Labor announced the results of a multi-year initiative resulting in the recovery of more than $1 million in wages and damages for 1,518 restaurant workers in the Tampa area.

I understand that one focus of today's hearing will be to a recent GAO report on the increase in the number of wage and hour lawsuits in the past ten years. While there has been a dramatic increase over this period, the reason for this increase is unclear. Department initiated suits comprise only a small fraction of total FLSA lawsuits brought against employers and the GAO study could not conclusively pinpoint the cause for this increase.

I also understand that the GAO report focused on improving the Department's approach to developing guidance through a more data driven approach. The Department has agreed with this recommendation and is working on its implementation.

Perhaps, a more fruitful use of today's hearing time would be to examine proposals that would strengthen wages for hard-working Americans to ensure that no one working full-time has to live in poverty.

This administration has taken steps to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers, supported the Miller-Harkin Minimum Wage Act, expanded FLSA protections to home health care workers, taken steps to ensure pay equity for women and is in the process of updating their overtime regulations.

We should build on these efforts by passing H.R. 1010, the Fair Minimum Wage Act. Raising the minimum wage is not only good for the millions of workers that would directly benefit, but also for our economy as a whole.

In fact, data from the Department of Labor shows that the 13 states that have raised the minimum wage have higher job growth than those that do not, including my own state of Connecticut -- which recently passed a minimum wage increase to $10.10.

The poster to my right shows the hundreds of thousands of constituents represented by members of this subcommittee who would benefit from this important legislation.

In my district, a total of 42,000 workers would benefit, including 24,000 women who
disproportionately make up the low-wage workforce. 55% of minimum wage workers who would benefit from a $10.10 increase are women, and raising the minimum wage to $10.10 would also close roughly 5% of the gender pay gap.

Passing this law would make a real difference in the lives of many people who we represent, and as a result, it at least deserves to be debated and voted on by this chamber.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. And thanks again to our witnesses for your participation.

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