Punching In: New Research Finds Scarce DOL Enforcement on Farms

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

Agricultural Enforcement from DOL|Public Comments on Pregnancy Rules

Rebecca Rainey: The federal Wage and Hour Division currently has the capacity to investigate fewer than 1% of farm employers per year, underscoring the agency’s struggles to enforce labor law and reach some of the most vulnerable workers.

US Labor Department wage investigations on farms have dropped by more than 60% over the past 22 years, and have largely focused on violations of the H-2A visa program for seasonal migrant farmworkers, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute study found.

“Federal labor standards enforcement efforts to ...