In 2018, the Department of Labor (DOL) initiated a program that allowed employers to self-report federal wage and hour violations and pay employees without the usual litigation, penalties and damages. The Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) was a way to encourage employers to report minimum wage and overtime errors or violations and pay employees what they were owed without penalty.
Last week the Biden DOL abruptly ended the PAID program. Why? This Labor Department is not in a forgiving mood. Here are some nuggets from the short press release:
- “Workers are entitled to every penny they have earned,”
- “The Payroll Audit Independent Determination program deprived workers of their rights and put employers that play by the rules at a disadvantage.”
- “The U.S. Department of Labor will rigorously enforce the law, and we will use all the enforcement tools we have available.”
OK then. While the federal government won’t help here, we can. We have a fixed-fee FLSA Wage, Hour & Timekeeping Audit to identify best time keeping practices and compliance risks when tracking non-exempt employee time. Contact us about wage and hour issues or anything else that needs attention in your workplace. We can help.