Millions of workers in the United States are experiencing wage theft, with a new report indicating that the issue may worsen due to insufficient staffing at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD). The report, produced by the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and Northwestern University, highlights that WHD is operating with its lowest number of investigators since 1973.
Janice Fine, director of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and co-author of the report, stated, “The Wage and Hour Division has been cut off at the knees for years and it just got significantly worse.” The report indicates that at least 4 million workers are illegally paid below minimum wage annually, resulting in losses exceeding $13 billion nationwide.
Currently, WHD employs 611 investigators responsible for protecting 165 million workers across the country. This equates to one investigator for every 278,000 workers. The number of investigators is now less than half of what it was in 1978 when it peaked at 1,232.
Jake Barnes, research program manager for the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and lead author of the report, commented on the situation: “All workers in the United States have the legal right to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, but there simply isn’t the staffing to make that right a reality.”
The disparity between WHD's budget and that of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is significant. In 2024, ICE had a $4.5 billion budget compared to WHD’s $315 million. Daniel J. Galvin from Northwestern University noted that federal priorities do not align with solving labor issues: “If the goal is to help U.S. workers, we should prioritize labor standards enforcement, not mass deportations.”
Despite limited resources, WHD managed to recover $273 million in back wages for nearly 152,000 workers in 2024. The report suggests that if WHD were funded similarly to ICE, it could potentially recover over $4 billion annually for workers.
The research combines findings from Galvin’s book “Alt-Labor and the New Politics of Workers’ Rights” with new data from Workplace Justice Lab studies.