U.S. DOL’s Wage and Hour Division announces record wage recovery for 2007

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced its enforcement data for Fiscal Year 2007. For 2007, 341,624 workers received recovered back wages in the amount of $220,613,703 (the highest recovered amount for any year). Paul DeCamp, administrator for the Wage and Hour Division said "This record-breaking performance demonstrates the department’s commitment to protecting workers."

Since FY 2000, WHD has recouped more than $1.25 billion for nearly two million workers.

More information on agency results is available on the Wage and Hour Division Web site at www.dol.gov/esa/whd.

2007 EEOC discrimination charges jumped to highest level in five years

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported a total of 82,792 private sector discrimination charges were filed in fiscal year 2007. This is the highest volume of incoming charges since 2002, and the largest annual increase (9%) since the early 1990s, according to the federal agency’s enforcement and litigation statistics.

Employers need to be more involved in injured workers’ rehabilitation.

A doctor that treats workers’ compensation injuries recently gave a seminar that I attended. In the beginning of this seminar he gave some interesting statistics regarding injured workers, included here:

- 50% of injured workers who have been off of work for between 6 months to 1 year never return to work

- 90% of injured workers who have been off of work more than 1 year never return to work

- 85% of costs of all workers’ compensation claims come from only 5% of claims

- 40% of the costs from all claims come from delayed recovery

- 10% of injured workers actually perform their prescribed physical therapy exercises at home

Not only do these claims have an impact on the employers who the worker was working for, but they also have social impacts to all of us when the worker can not or will not continue to work after the injury. These social impacts include a drain on disability insurance, medicaid / medicare, and other welfare programs offered by state and federal laws. Employers need to design and implement Return-to-Work programs and show concern for the injured worker. As employers do this work related injury costs should be reduced and the burden to the employer and society as a whole can be softened.

See Also

• Staffscapes
  workers compensation information

Jobless Claims still on the rise, exceeding expectations

The US is paying benefits to nearly five million people, who do not have jobs. Unemployed workers who are receiving benefits came to an all time high reaching up to five million at the beginning of February. Jobless claims linger well above the projections of 600,000 from the Federal Reserve. Marking the fourth consecutive week were those receiving benefits has been at a record high of 4.99 million and rising. The complexity people are having is not finding another job, which means benefits are forced to be offered longer. An additional 1.5 million people are receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program that congress approved last year. This number added to the already increasing number of people receiving unemployment benefits reaches 6.54 million. New applications for unemployment are pouring in and total 627,000 in last week alone. This is more than economists expected. The claims also are the highest tally since October 1982 when the economy was emerging from a steep recession, even though the work force has almost doubled since then. More business are continuing to make layoffs and cut spending which is heightening concerns on the recession currently the longest in a quarter century. The Fed released a new economic forecast that reduced it current growth forecast for 2009. The forecast also increased the unemployment rate projections. The new forecast predicts unemployment to reach among 8.5% and 8.8% instead of the previous prediction of 7.6%. The President was in Denver this week to sign into law a stimulus program of $787 billion and then in Arizona for a $75 billion program for the mortgage foreclosures which is said to help the economy back from this recession.

Source: www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/19/jobless-claim-hit-time-high/

Stats of Unemployment from the Census Bureau

While reading daily about the jobless claims still rising I can across an article that opened my eyes about the number of claims that have been made. More than 651,000 jobs were cut in February. This added to the unemployment rate which is currently at 8.1%. Here are some stats available by the Census Bureau.

651,000 Jobs were cut in February. This number is larger than the populations of these cities:

*Baltimore
*Denver
*Seattle
*El Paso
*Washington, DC

12.5 million People are unemployed in the US. This number is more than:
*Women attending college
*Male scientist and engineers
*People watching ABC’s show “Lost” this season

12.5 million is also larger than the populations of all 45 states including:
*Ohio
*Pennsylvania
*Michigan
*Virginia

4.4 million jobs have been lost since the start of this recession December 2007. This is larger than the population of the entire San Francisco Bay Area.

2.6 million jobs have been lost in the past four months, which is about the number of senior citizens living in Florida.

8.6 million people have been forced to work part-time for economic reasons. This number is more than the population of New York City and more than the number of people who try to quit smoking every year.

As companies continue to eliminate jobs there is one sector that boosted its employment this last month and that is government.

Source: Unemployment by the numbers: How bad is it Hurting? Fox News.com/0,3566,506405,00.html

Let’s face it, litigation is a fact we all have to deal with.  And, if you are a business owner, chances are even greater that at some point in your career you will be directly impacted.  Lora Manternach, Benefits Administrator for StaffScapes, Inc. recently attended a legal updates seminar presented by Fisher & Phillips, LLP.  Here’s a few key statistics that they shared that you need to know:
 
1.    Lawsuits are up almost 400% over the past 20 years
2.    Most common target for lawsuits is private employers with 5-100 employees
3.    In federal court, 67% of all awards exceed $100,000 with the average compensatory damages awarded at almost $500,000
One large area of litigation centers around EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) claims.  As expected, filings have increased and in fact set a record high of 95,402 in 2008.  This marked a 15.2 % increase from the year before.  The response is that the EEOC has become more aggressive aided by a $23 million dollar budget increase.  After hiring an additional 300 employees, the EEOC has collected $274 million, filed 290 “merit” lawsuits, focused additional attention to class actions and systemic violations and worked to change enforcement policies.
What’s the best way to mitigate potential claims?  We recommend establishing policies and procedures and/or making sure current handbooks are up to date.  Keeping consistent is key in how you deal with daily operational situations.  For further assistance, please contact StaffScapes, Inc. at 303-466-7864 or info@StaffScapes.com.