Improving Workplace Conditions Through Strategic Enforcement: A Report to the Wage and Hour Division

“This report draws on a series of studies…that have sought to examine how industry struc­tures affect the way employers behave and, in particular, their likelihood to comply with the important provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These studies have examined key dimensions of the ways that many of the industries employing large numbers of vulnerable workers create incentives or disin­centives for compliance. The research shows that insight into these relationships provides opportunities to increase compli­ance through different approaches to enforcement” (p.1).

(Abstractor: Author)

Key findings include: • “Changes in the structure of the economy and in the complexity of employment relationships, as well as the decline in unionization together render the traditional, workplace-focused approach to enforcement less and less effective. At the same time, the changing expectations of Congress, the OMB, key stakeholders, and the public have raised the performance demands on agencies like WHD” (p.1). • “The employment relationship in many sectors with high concentrations of vulnerable workers has become complicated as major companies have shifted the direct employment of workers to other business entities that often operate under extremely competitive conditions. This ‘fissuring’ or splintering of employment increases the incentives for employers at lower levels of industry structures to violate workplace policies, including the FLSA” (p.1-2). • “Deterring violations before they occur has long been recognized as part of overall enforcement policy, but has often not been incorporated as a central component of how investigations are targeted, conducted, and followed up on, or in the way that penalties are assessed and levied. As a result, deterrence incentives are often low, uneven, and inconsistent” (p.2). • “The structure of industries…has important implications for strategic enforcement. Analysis of the structures of industries can give guidance on why some employers comply and others do not. These insights, in turn, can help shape sector-based enforcement strategies and policies to change employer behavior and improve compliance systemically” (p.2). • “The two main types of investigations undertaken by WHD—directed and complaint—have often been treated as separate and distinct. Strategic enforcement and the demands placed on the agency by oversight institutions and the public require integration of these key tools of enforcement…” (p.2). • “The external and internal changes in the environment in which WHD operates require new criteria for judging the success of enforcement initiatives. In particular, enforcement strategy should be guided and evaluated on the basis of the following four criteria: prioritization; deterrence; sustainability; and system-wide impacts” (p.2). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Weil, David
• Organizational Author(s): Boston University; Mathematica Policy Research
• Funding Source: Russell Sage Foundation, U.S. Department of Labor
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies