The federal government is trying to reunite 5,243 workers in Maryland with more than $6.8 million in unpaid wages it says they are owed. All the workers have to do is ask.
U.S. Department of Labor officials are encouraging workers who think they may be owed money for hours they clocked but weren’t paid for, for overtime they didn’t collect — for any reason — to check out the department’s Workers Owed Wages, or WOW, database to see if the agency has money for them.
“We collect back wages for folks that didn’t get paid … properly,” said Nick Fiorello, the Baltimore District director of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division.
Fiorello said the wage and hour division will investigate complaints from workers who think they have been wronged, or it can initiate an investigation of a company on its own. But once it collects back wages from an employer, he said, “We’re only able to keep the wages for three years and then we have to pass it on to the Treasury.” Which is why the department is encouraging people to make checking the database part of their year-end routine.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Steve Crane over at Maryland Matters
