More than 1,600 Indiana workers have failed to claim more than $1.2 million back wages, the U.S. Department of Labor says.
Whenever labor law violations are found, the department’s Wage and Hour Division often recovers unpaid wages on behalf of employees. However, a significant portion of the funds, more than $1.2 million in Indiana’s case, remain unclaimed because some of the workers who were owed back wages cannot be located, federal officials say.
In many cases, the employees change jobs or addresses and cannot be notified of the money due them. Name changes, along with an employer’s failure to retain contact information, can also make it difficult for the department to find employees and put back wages recovered into their hands, according to a news release.
The Wage and Hour Division can only hold unclaimed back wages for three years before they are required to turn it over to the U.S. Treasury Department.
“Despite our best efforts, too much of this money remains unclaimed,” a Labor Department spokesperson said in the news release.
An online search tool has been developed to try reach out to more workers and help them claim the money they are owed. Workers Owed Wages, or WOW, allows workers to enter information to find out if the department is 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, according to the news release.
The WOW system is currently available in English and a Spanish. 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, the news release says.
If there is money to be distributed, workers will be directed to the Wage and Hour Division office that can help them get their check quickly. Calls can be answered, confidentially, in over 200 languages, according to the news release.
The website can be accessed by going to dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow.
