Lawsuits by U.S. workers contesting wages and hours, including demands for overtime pay, reached a 20-year high this year as unemployment remained above 8 percent, Bloomberg News reported today. There were 7,064 federal wage-and-hour cases filed during the 12 months ending March 31, a number that has grown almost every year since 2000, when the total was 1,854, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The recession and the unemployment rate contributed to the rise, said Richard Alfred, chairman of the national wage and hour litigation practice at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, who represents companies in lawsuits brought by groups of workers. Ambiguities in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which establishes standards for overtime pay, also contribute to the volume of cases, the lawyers said. The law, enacted in 1938 and amended in 2004, defines which workers are entitled to extra pay for working more than 40 hours a week.
