Pandemic Hinders Wage-Hour Enforcement, Labor Watchdog Warns

The U.S. Labor Department’s wage-enforcement agency has conducted most of its investigations remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, posing challenges in ensuring workers are covered by an emergency paid-leave law, the DOL Inspector General said.

The department’s Wage and Hour Division conducted only four in-person investigations from mid-March to mid-May—the first two months of the pandemic—covering 0.4% of 1,050 cases under the newly enacted law that requires certain businesses to provide up to 12 weeks of paid sick and family leave benefits for workers affected by Covid-19, according to a report the independent watchdog released Tuesday.

The need to avoid spreading ...