Wage and Hour Mystery

This mystery starts with the Labor Department. A Government Accountability Office report (pdf) due to be released on Wednesday March 25th had its curtain raised in the New York Times that morning.

The undercover investigation revealed that the Wage and Hour Division investigators from Labor often did not return calls, or file complaints from the undercover agents posing as dishwashers and restaurant workers. They found that complaints were never investigated and officials claimed that back wages had been paid, when they had not. The conclusion: Wage and Hour was simply not doing its job to protect the country's low wage workers.

On the same day, March 25th, the Wall Street Journal announced that the new Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis who was confirmed only one month ago on February 24th, intended to hire 150 more investigators to enforce wage and child labor laws in the wake of the GAO probe and an additional 100 investigators as part of the stimulus plan, to ensure that contractors on stimulus projects are in compliance with applicable laws.

The article says that the Wage and Hour Division had already begun hiring the investigators before the final results of the probe were issued, as part of what the new Secretary calls an expanded 2009 budget for the Wage and Hour Division.

This is amazingly quick work for an agency still in the process of staffing up. Given that the hiring process in the federal government is lengthy and the appropriations for such expanded hiring must have been anticipated, Ms. Solis probably had some help from the previous Administration in suggesting and budgeting for the increased staff.

But in Washington, you don't say such things.

The final piece of this mystery is in the hearing itself which was held by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. He personally asked the GAO to conduct the surveillance mission and then held a hearing on the report that no one from Labor attended due to a lack of political appointees on staff at the Labor Department….ahem.

Further, the committee concluded that the Wage and Hour Division failures were egregious. Poor recordkeeping and technology, insufficient staff and a concerted effort by the Bush Administration to ignore the law contributed to the problem that low wage workers never received their overtime.

The GAO however reached no such conclusion, only saying that there was no evidence that the Bush Administration had directed employees not to enforce the law.

The mystery: was this probe directed by Miller to help low wage workers or score political points?

The answer: Nothing in Washington ever happens by accident.

Jane Norris is a former fed and current host of the Federal Drive. You can reach her at jnorris@federalnewsradio.com

(Copyright 2009 by FederalNewsRadio.com. All Rights Reserved.)