The FLSA requires that workers who are covered by the act and not specifically exempt from its provisions be paid at least the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 per hour) and 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The act also regulates the employment of youth under the age of 18 and establishes recordkeeping requirements for employers, among other provisions. There are a number of exceptions to the requirements of the FLSA; for example, independent contractors are not covered by the FLSA, and certain categories of workers, such as those in bona fide executive, administrative, or professional positions, are exempt from the minimum wage requirements, overtime requirements, or both. WHD has issued regulations implementing the FLSA that further define these exemptions and other requirements of the FLSA. The mission pursued by DOL through its WHD is to promote and achieve compliance with labor standards to protect and enhance the welfare of the nation’s workforce. The FLSA authorizes DOL to enforce its provisions by, for example, conducting investigations, assessing penalties, supervising payment of back wages, and bringing suit in court on behalf of employees. DOL’s WHD also conducts a range of compliance assistance activities to support employers in their efforts to understand and meet the requirements of the law. WHD’s enforcement and compliance assistance activities are conducted by staff in its 52 district offices, which are located throughout the country and managed by staff in its five regional offices and Washington, D.C. headquarters. In response to complaints of alleged FLSA violations it receives from workers or their representatives, WHD conducts several types of enforcement activities. These range from comprehensive investigations covering all laws under the agency’s jurisdiction to conciliations, a quick remediation process generally limited to a single alleged FLSA violation such as a missed paycheck for a single worker. Before WHD initiates an investigation of a complaint, it screens the complaint to determine, among other factors, whether the allegations, if true, would violate the law, and to ensure the statute of limitations has not expired. If WHD identifies a violation through an enforcement activity, but the employer refuses to pay the back wages or penalties assessed, DOL’s Office of the Solicitor may sue the employer on behalf of the affected workers. In fiscal year 2012, WHD conducted investigations or conciliations in response to about 20,000 FLSA complaints and DOL’s Office of the Solicitor filed about 200 federal lawsuits to enforce the requirements of the FLSA on behalf of workers. In addition to responding to complaints, WHD enforces the requirements of the FLSA by initiating investigations of employers by targeting industries it believes have a high probability of violations but a low likelihood that workers will file a complaint. In fiscal year 2012, WHD concluded about 7,000 targeted FLSA investigations. WHD encourages compliance with the FLSA by providing training for employers and workers and creating online tools and fact sheets that explain the requirements of the law and related regulations, among other efforts. The agency refers to these efforts collectively as compliance assistance. One form of FLSA compliance assistance WHD provides is written interpretive guidance that attempts to clarify the agency’s interpretation of a statutory or regulatory provision. WHD disseminates this guidance to those who request it—such as employers and workers— and posts it on the WHD website for public use. WHD’s interpretive guidance includes opinion letters which apply to a specific situation. However, in 2010, WHD stopped issuing opinion letters and indicated that it would instead provide administrator interpretations, which are more broadly applicable. As a result of the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, which established a “safe harbor” from liability under the FLSA for employers that rely in good faith on a written interpretation from WHD’s administrator, certain WHD written guidance could potentially provide a “safe harbor” in FLSA litigation. The FLSA also grants workers the right to file a private lawsuit to recover wages they claim they are owed because of their employer’s violation of the act’s minimum wage or overtime pay requirements. WHD cannot investigate all of the thousands of complaints it receives each year because of its limited capacity. Therefore, the agency informs workers whose complaints of FLSA violations are not investigated or otherwise resolved by WHD of their right to file a lawsuit. Workers filing an FLSA lawsuit may file in one of the 94 federal district courts, which are divided into 12 regional circuits across the country. FLSA lawsuits may be brought individually or as part of a collective action. A collective action is a single lawsuit filed by one or more representative workers on behalf of multiple workers who claim that an employer violated the FLSA in similar ways. The court will generally certify whether an action meets the requirements to proceed as a collective; in some cases, the court may decertify a collective after it is formed if the court subsequently determines that the collective does not meet those requirements. In such cases, the court may permit the members of the decertified collective to individually file private FLSA lawsuits. Over the last two decades, the number of FLSA lawsuits filed nationwide in federal district courts has increased substantially, with most of this increase occurring in the last decade. Since 1991, the number of FLSA lawsuits filed has increased by 514 percent, with a total of 8,148 FLSA lawsuits filed in fiscal year 2012. Since 2001, when 1,947 FLSA lawsuits were filed, the number of FLSA lawsuits has increased sharply (see fig. 1). Not only has the number of FLSA lawsuits increased, but they also constitute a larger proportion of all federal civil lawsuits than they did in past years. In 1991, FLSA lawsuits made up less than 1 percent (.6 percent) of all civil lawsuits, but by 2012, FLSA lawsuits accounted for almost 3 percent of all civil lawsuits, an increase of 383 percent. These increases, however, were not evenly distributed across all states. In fact, while federal district courts in most states saw increases in both the number of FLSA lawsuits filed and the percentage of all civil lawsuits filed that were FLSA lawsuits, increases in a small number of states were substantial and contributed significantly to the overall trends. In each of three states—Florida, New York, and Alabama—more than 1,000 more FLSA lawsuits were filed in fiscal year 2012 than in fiscal year 1991 (see fig. 2). Since 2001, more than half of all FLSA lawsuits were accounted for by filings in those three states. About 43 percent of FLSA lawsuits filed nationwide during this period were filed in either Florida (33 percent) or New York (10 percent). At the same time, the percentage of all federal civil cases that were FLSA cases in those three states also increased significantly. In both Florida and New York, growth in the number of FLSA lawsuits filed was generally steady, while changes in Alabama involved sharp increases in fiscal years 2007 and 2012 with far fewer lawsuits filed in other years. Each spike in Alabama coincided with the decertification of at least one large collective action, which likely resulted in multiple individual lawsuits. From 1991 to 2012, while most states experienced increases in the number of FLSA lawsuits filed, the proportion of civil lawsuits that were FLSA lawsuits, or both, these trends were not universal. In 14 states, the number of FLSA lawsuits filed in 2012 was less than or the same as the number of FLSA lawsuits filed in 1991, and in 10 states the proportion of civil lawsuits FLSA cases made up was smaller in 2012 than in 1991. While many factors have likely contributed to the overall increase in FLSA lawsuits and stakeholders we interviewed cited multiple factors, they most frequently cited increased awareness about FLSA cases and activity on the part of plaintiffs’ attorneys as a significant contributing factor. Many stakeholders, including two plaintiffs’ attorneys, told us that financial incentives, combined with the fairly straightforward nature of many FLSA cases, made attorneys receptive to taking these cases. In some states, specifically Florida, where nearly 30 percent of all FLSA lawsuits were filed from 1991 to 2012, several stakeholders, including federal judges, WHD officials, and a defense attorney, told us that plaintiffs’ attorneys advertise for wage and hour cases via billboards, radio, foreign language press, and other methods. Two stakeholders we spoke with also said that some plaintiffs’ attorneys, when consulted by potential clients about other employment issues, such as wrongful termination, will inquire about potential wage and hour claims; a plaintiffs’ attorney we interviewed also said that it is generally easier to evaluate the potential merits of wage and hour cases than of wrongful termination and employment discrimination cases. While a few stakeholders said they did not view increased interest among plaintiffs’ attorneys to be a significant factor in the increase in FLSA lawsuits, most did, including some plaintiffs’ attorneys. Two stakeholders, including an academic and a representative of an organization that works on behalf of low wage workers, told us that this increased interest was beneficial because it served to counterbalance DOL’s limited FLSA enforcement capacity. In addition, several stakeholders told us that evolving case law may have contributed to the increased awareness and activity on the part of plaintiffs’ attorneys. In particular, they mentioned the 1989 Supreme Court decision Hoffmann–La Roche, Inc. v. Sperling, which held that federal courts have discretion to facilitate notice to potential plaintiffs of ongoing collective actions. Historically, according to several stakeholders, the requirement that plaintiffs must “opt in” to a collective action had created some challenges to forming collectives because the plaintiffs’ attorneys had to identify potential plaintiffs and contact them to get them to join the collective. Stakeholders we interviewed said the Hoffmann-La Roche decision, which made it easier for plaintiffs’ attorneys to identify potential plaintiffs, reduced the work necessary to form collectives.