January 08, 2026
U.S. DOL WHD Publishes FY ’25 Wage Recovery Data
On January 8th, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced it recovered more than $259M in back wages for workers in 2025, its highest recovery of back wages since 2019. This includes recoveries for violations of the FLSA, FMLA, Migrant & Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act (MSPA), and more.
Looking at FLSA data alone, here are some statistics I find interesting.
- Last year, the U.S. DOL collected 10.59% more in back wages for 8.15% fewer employees than it did in FY ’21.
- The number of overtime violations far exceeded retaliation and tip violations. (I’d love to see the stats for misclassification violations)
- By industry, food services, health care, and construction were the top three, respectively, in compliance actions as well as back wages paid.
As for some FMLA statistics:
- The #1 violation was denial of leave. In FY ’23 and ’22 it was discrimination.
- Failure to reinstate was at its 2nd highest level since 2019.
- On a positive note, termination was at its lowest rate since 2013! At least it seems employers are betting understanding when they may/not discharge an employee for using or having used FMLA leave.
NOTE: This data came out just three days after the DOL published its first FLSA & FMLA opinion letters for the year. Message? Compliance is on their radar. Make sure you are complying with federal law, as well as your corresponding state and local laws.
