DOL Pulls Back From Use of ‘Double Damages’ in Wage Cases (1)

The Labor Department is curtailing its use of liquidated damages, which double the amount of back pay workers receive in wage settlements, erasing an Obama-era policy that applied the technique more frequently to collect employer penalties for employees shorted on pay.

The policy change stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed last month directing agencies to use deregulatory actions to help spur economic recovery, the department said in an online notice Wednesday. The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division said in the notice to field staff that it “will no longer pursue pre-litigation liquidated damages as its default policy ...