In recent decades, Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits have generally been on the rise. And according to an evaluation of federal judiciary data by Seyfarth Shaw, fiscal year 2015 was another whopper for this type of litigation.
The number of federally filed wage-and-hour cases hit a new high in 2015, rising 7.6 percent over 2014 to a total of 8,781 cases filed. More than one factor is likely behind the record, including federal agency activities and the growing public attention on wage-and-hour issues. Given that these driving forces don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, in-house counsel can probably expect the number of wage-and-hour suits to continue its upward trajectory in the new year.
