BALTIMORE — Maryland workers are owed approximately $6.6 million. This money is back pay recovered for federal wage and hour violations. The U.S. Department of Labor is now seeking to return it to more than 4,000 workers and they have a limited time to do so.
Nick Fiorello, Baltimore’s district director with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, said they haven’t been able to return the money to wronged employees, because they’ve had difficulty finding them.
“Oftentimes, folks move on from address to address, and sometimes they don't have forwarding addresses. And that's the challenge we have. We also work with folks that come to the United States on temporary visas, and they return to their home countries,” said Fiorello.
And it's a significant amount that remains unclaimed until the clock runs out.
“We have three years to locate workers. And if we can't locate workers in those three years, we have to pass the money on to Department of Treasury,” Fiorello added.
This money is to compensate workers for federal wage and hour violations.
“The most common is the Fair Labor Standards Act and that's a law that requires employers that are covered under the law to pay its employees minimum wage, overtime, keep certain records of hours worked, payroll records, and then there's a child labor component as well,” Fiorello said.
And he added that some industries are more problematic than others.
“Mostly home care industries here, the agriculture industry, construction industry, guard services,” said Fiorello.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 141 workers for Paragon Systems, Inc., a company providing security solutions in Baltimore, are owed nearly $55,000. And 32 employees with Heaven's Place Recovery Center, an addiction treatment facility, are due over $14,000.
“The minimum [amount] is around $20 and the maximum is a few thousand dollars,” said Fiorello.
The best way to know is to search the Workers Owed Wages (WOW) system. Find your employer, your name, then submit a claim form.
And more people could find themselves on this list as violations are reported. Fiorello reminding workers that they are there to reinforce their rights and respect.
“It's perfectly legitimate for folks to ask us questions. When they have a complaint, the best thing to do is talk to us right away,” said Fiorello.
Once you fill out the back wage claim form, it'll take the Wage and Hour Division around 6 weeks to process it then send a check for any owed wages. Workers can also call the Wage and Hour division if they want to know if they're owed any back wages.
Both the English and Spanish versions of the website allow workers and their advocates to answer a series of questions to determine if they are owed wages and to easily claim them. Calls can be answered, confidentially, in over 200 languages.
For assistance with Workers Owed Wages, workers and advocates can contact the Wage and Hour Division’s Baltimore District Office at (410) 962-6211.