Most Common Violations Found During an Investigation Under FLSA Section 14(c)

Experience has shown that the most common violations found by the Wage and Hour Division under FLSA Section 14(c) are the following:

• Failure to use proper sources when conducting a prevailing wage survey
• Failure to define and document quality when establishing hourly commensurate wage rates
• Failure to properly document the prevailing wage survey and to maintain that documentation
• Failure to obtain the experienced rate when conducting a prevailing wage survey
• Failure to determine prevailing wage rates at a minimum of once a year
• Failure to adjust prevailing wage rates after a minimum wage increase
• Failure to adjust piece rates and hourly rates as a result of adjustments/changes to the prevailing wage
• Failure to evaluate hourly paid workers with disabilities on a timely basis and/or failure to timely adjust the hourly rates after employees are evaluated
• Payment of a blanket "training wage" or “training rate” without later adjusting the rate to the required commensurate wage
• Using behavioral standards when conducting quantity and/or quality evaluations of hourly paid workers
• Rounding errors in time studies and when computing the commensurate wages, for example, when the piece rate multiplied by the standard units per hour fails to yield at least the prevailing wage rate
• Inadequate time studies, such as failure to include irregular elements (like equipment failure or depletion of needed supplies) when calculating an hourly rate or piece rate
• Failure to ensure the worker has a disability for the work being performed or failure to maintain and/or provide documentation to support that the worker has a disability for the work performed
• Failure to count all hours worked
• Failure to pay full fringe benefits for work on contracts subject to the McNamara- O'Hara Service Contract Act (SCA)

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