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Department of Labor Extends PAID Program An Additional Six Months


Earlier this year, I made note of the Department of Labor’s Payroll Audit Independent Determination (‘PAID’) program which would allow employers to self report and remedy wage and hour violations without penalty, so long as employers got their ‘aggrieved’ employees their owed back pay and the employer was not a prior offender.  The PAID program went into effect April 3rd and was set to be in place for approximately six months before the Department of Labor would review the program to determine whether to extend, modify, or terminate it completely.  Critics quickly argued it was nothing more than a ‘get out of jail free’ card for some employers that failed to actually curtail wage and hour violators.  However, advocates of the PAID program pointed out that it remedied unpaid wage issues without an extended delay and did not require employees to shoulder legal fees to fight for the wages they were owed.

On Tuesday, the Department of Labor announced it would extend the PAID program for an additional six months.  Readers are likely wondering whether the program has achieved its desired impact.  From internal reports, it appears that in the initial six months of the program, approximately nine employees participated with unpaid wages totaling more than $500,000.00.  While the Department of Labor had not set any specific benchmarks for what would/would not be considered a success for the program, these initial numbers seem promising.  Of course, critics will likely still argue that while these apparent numbers are a good start, the PAID program still fails to get at the root of the problem when it comes to employers not paying their employees the full wages due and owing.  Regardless, it will be interesting to see what numbers are reported after the close of this next six month period.


For additional information:  https://www.allongeorgia.com/national-news/u-s-depart-of-labor-announces-record-304m-in-recovered-wages-for-workers-in-fiscal-year-2018/

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