During 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Regulatory Agenda, began to require employers to find and fix violations before a DOL investigator arrives onsite at the workplace to audit their practices, according to an Department statement. The DOL’s strategy, referred to as “Plan/Prevent/Protect,” highlights the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), along with other employment laws.

Records to Be Kept by Employers Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (Wage and Hour Division (WHD)). The WHD will publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) concerning employers’ recordkeeping requirements under the FLSA, such as requiring that employers provide workers with basic information about their employment, including how their pay is calculated. Any employers that seek to exclude workers from the FLSA's coverage would be required to perform a classification analysis, disclose that analysis to the worker, and retain that analysis to give to WHD enforcement personnel who might request it.

According to a recent poll, if such a rule becomes effective, it could take some organizations over six months to complete every classification analysis. For more information on the poll results, read Possible FLSA Recordkeeping Rule Could Have Huge Impact Employers.

More detailed descriptions of the components of the Plan/Prevent/Protect compliance strategy are explained in DOL’s “Regulatory Agenda Narrative.” The second Regulatory Agenda, updated in Fall 2010 is also available online.