More than 5,800 Michigan workers are owed more than $2.3M in back wages recovered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
According to officials at the Labor Department, a significant portion of that money remains unclaimed because some of the workers due back wages cannot be located.
“In many cases, the employees change jobs or change addresses and cannot be notified of the money due them. Name changes or an employer’s failure to retain contact information can also make it difficult for us to find employees and put back wages recovered into their hands.”
Further complicating reuniting people with their hard-earned money, the Wage and Hour Division can only hold unclaimed back wages for three years before they required to turn it over to the Department of the Treasury.
“Despite our best efforts, too much of this money remains unclaimed.”
In an effort to reach out to more workers and help them claim the money they are owed, the agency has developed an online search tool, Workers Owed Wages (WOW) that allows workers to enter information to find out if we are holding back wages on their behalf. The tool provides a quick and easy way for employees to find out if they are owed money and receive it.
The WOW system is currently available in English and a Spanish. Last year, WHD also updated the WOW website to make it more user-friendly and offer ways to search the database, and we enhanced security.
Both the English and Spanish versions of the website allow workers and their advocates to answer a series of questions to determine if they are owed wages and to easily claim them. If there is money to be distributed, workers will be directed to the WHD office that can help them get their check quickly. Calls can be answered, confidentially, in over 200 languages.
