As the fourth quarter of 2013 fast approaches, it appears certain that 2013 will be yet another record year in lawsuits brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Statistics maintained on the U.S. courts' Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system show that a record number 7,688 FLSA lawsuits were filed in calendar year 2012. With 4,595 FLSA filings on record during the first seven months of 2013, it is all but certain that this year will see a new record for FLSA filings. These numbers do not, of course, take into account the myriad wage-and-hour lawsuits filed in state courts across the country that never find their way into federal court or that are filed in federal court and do not assert FLSA (as opposed to state wage and hour) claims.
The record number of FLSA lawsuits in 2012 continues a nearly 20-year trend that has seen huge year-over-year percentage increases in the number of wage-and-hour suits, many of which are asserted as collective actions brought on behalf of thousands of employees. In fact, according to the Federal Judicial Center, FLSA suits have increased some 517 percent since 1990.
