Deteriorating morale spanning multiple administrations at the nation’s enforcer of minimum wage, family leave, and worker misclassification laws has left the U.S. Labor Department division with the lowest number of investigators in nearly 50 years.
The attrition at the DOL’s Wage and Hour unit could leave some of the country’s most vulnerable workers at risk of abuse, a former agency official said. The exodus also complicates the Biden administration’s ability to execute its promises to strengthen enforcement against companies that take advantage of workers, a problem that will be further strained under the new wage enforcement demands created under the ...