Common wage and hour violations
What are the most common wage and hour violations that lead to economic penalties? Charla Bizios Stevens counts down 2015’s top ten wage and hour violations in her state, New Hampshire. She comments that the list of most frequent violations don’t change much from year to year.
“The cost of noncompliance remains significant, both in terms of dollars spent [paying back wages and civil penalties] and time taken to correct deficiencies.” She adds that audits are time-consuming and expensive. 
First is failure to provide employees with written documentation of wage rate, pay period, pay day or fringe benefits. Second is failure to have a written safety plan, joint loss management committee and safety summary form.
Third is failure to pay minimum wage and fourth is making improper deductions from wages. The ‘safe harbor’ rule makes these violations correctable as long as an employer can show that the error is inadvertent and not part of standard practice.
Fifth, is the employment of undocumented workers. Deborah Dyson examines the Immigration Customs and Enforcement policy regarding hiring foreign workers here.
Sixth is failure to provide workers’ compensation. You can read case examples involving allegations of workers’ compensation violations here from EmployStats.
Seventh is the employment of workers under 18 years of age. The Department of Labor provides a detailed guide to age requirements for work.
Eighth is failure to pay two hours of minimum pay on any day the employer requests that the employee reports for work.
Ninth is failure to keep an accurate record of hours worked. In cases that involve allegations of these types of wage and hour violations, economic experts can use surveys and declarations to construct data that can be used to analyze damages claims. Dr. Dwight Steward explains more about use of surveys and declarations in this article.
Finally, tenth is failure to pay wage for all hours worked, benefits and breaks less than 20 minutes. This violation can result in claims for damages for past earnings and benefits.
