North Carolina Labor Commissioner Luke Farley has announced that his department has recovered more than $2.5 million in unpaid wages for workers across the state over the last fiscal year. Many of these workers have waited months or even years for their money.
The recovered wages come from thousands of complaints investigated by NCDOL’s Wage and Hour Bureau. It enforces the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act, which ensures that employees receive the compensation they’re legally owed.
The cases involved a wide range of violations, including unpaid final paychecks, withheld commissions, overtime shortfalls, and improper deductions across industries such as construction, retail, hospitality, health care, and manufacturing.
“That is money that was earned by the hard work of North Carolina’s workers, and they deserve every penny,” he told Council of State members at their meeting Tuesday. “Our department determined that they deserve every penny of that, and so my job as commissioner, but the job of the department as a whole as well, is to stand up for those workers that aren’t paid their promised wages. And I will tell you, just from a personal perspective, somebody failing to pay what they promised a worker is personally offensive to me. And our Wage and Hour Bureau is aggressively pursuing wage and hour cases against people who aren’t paying for what they promised.”
A spokesperson for Farley told Carolina Journal in an email that the wages recovered were paid to about 1,800 employees and ranged from $50 for one person to $347,609.80 for 25 employees. Most of the wages collected were for one to two employees.
Farley added that the $2.5 million represents the ability to pay rent, buy groceries, and plan for people’s future.
North Carolinians who believe they haven’t been paid properly can contact the department confidentially.
Occupational safety and health division recently lauded
He also told members that the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Division, which monitors working conditions at various employers throughout the state, recently received high marks in the FY 2024 OSHA Federal Annual Monitoring Evaluation (FAME) Report.
“Our injury and illness rate, which is the key metric for whether a place is a safe place to work or not, is 19% below the national average for the private sector,” Farley said. “We completed over 1,600 workplace safety inspections, which is almost 99% of our target. So, when it comes to inspections, we are trending in the right direction.”
He also said the penalty attention rate, which is the rate at which the department recovers penalties it assesses that get challenged by the employer and brought before a court, is at 84%, or the recovery of 84 cents of every dollar.
North Carolina is one of 22 states with a state plan for OSHA. The state will be recognized for 30 years of having a fully approved OSHA state plan.
boiler safety bureau recognized for 90 years of service
Farley also wanted to recognize the NCDOL’s Boiler Safety Bureau, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. At the time of its inception in 1935, there was a fatal boiler accident every six weeks. Now, it’s down to one every four years. Over 50,000 inspections are conducted each year.
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