I know what you’re thinking—not another post on wage and hour compliance. Workplace compliance specialist ELT published the results of a recent survey that caught my eye:
The money on the table for wage and hour class action settlements is huge, averaging $23.5M at the federal level and $24.4M at the state level. With the majority of employers already out of compliance with wage and hour laws, these are the kind of open and shut cases plaintiff’s law firms love to take on. Although these lawsuits are often positioned as valiant efforts toward worker protection, most of the money ends up in the hands of the attorneys while many class participants see as little as a few hundred dollars.
Average settlements over $20 million for “open and shut” cases should certainly get your attention. Yet, as long as businesses continue to ignore wage and hour compliance, I’ll continue to write posts about it.
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.