How to File a Department of Labor Complaint (Wage and Hour)

A Department of Labor complaint is a report to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the part of the DOL that enforces the FLSA. It is the most accessible enforcement route for a worker who thinks they were underpaid. It is free, you can file online, and your identity is kept confidential to the extent the law allows.

You do not need a lawyer, legal citations or a complete set of records. You need to describe what happened and give enough detail for an investigator to start.

What the WHD enforces

More than 180 federal labor laws. The common wage complaints are unpaid overtime, minimum-wage shortfalls, tip-credit abuse, off-the-clock work and illegal deductions. Discrimination and harassment that are unrelated to pay go to the EEOC instead. The overtime rules the WHD applies are in how to calculate overtime pay.

Filing online: what to have ready

Use the WHD complaint page, or call 1-866-487-9243. The form asks for the employer's name, address and approximate size, your contact details, your job title and rate, the date range of the problem and a short narrative. No attachments are required to start. Allow fifteen minutes.

A narrative that works is specific and short, for example: I worked at Smith Auto Parts as a counter clerk from January 2024 to present at $17.50 an hour. Most weeks I work 45 hours but am paid for 40 at straight time. I estimate I am owed about $2,275 for the last year. My manager is Dana Reyes. I have pay stubs and my own hours log. The estimate comes from the back-pay calculator: 5 hours x $8.75 half-time premium = $43.75 a week, or $2,275 over 52 weeks.

How the investigation works

A district office assigns an investigator, who contacts the employer, asks for payroll records and time logs, and may interview coworkers. If the employer's records are missing or falsified, investigators reconstruct what is owed from employee statements and reasonable estimates. The FLSA puts the recordkeeping duty on the employer, so missing records work against it. Straightforward cases can finish in a few months. Cases involving a whole workforce, such as misclassification, take longer.

What the agency can order

If a violation is found, the employer receives a back-wage finding and a deadline to pay. If it refuses, the Solicitor of Labor can file a federal suit on your behalf. The WHD can also assess civil money penalties of up to $2,515 per willful or repeated violation, a figure held flat for 2026 because the CPI-U data needed for the annual inflation adjustment was never published. Penalties go to the government, not to you. Back wages and, in most successful cases, an equal amount of liquidated damages go to the worker. See what is back pay for how the doubling works.

Is it worth filing? The FY2025 numbers

The WHD reported recovering more than $259 million in back wages for nearly 177,000 workers in fiscal year 2025, about $1,465 per worker and the highest total since 2019. Healthcare had the most dollars recovered, more than $53 million across 2,370 violations. Food services had the most cases, 4,088 violations with over $42 million recovered. Civil penalties assessed were $58.7 million, up from $35.9 million the year before. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division FY2025 announcement.

The takeaway is practical: the agency recovers money regularly, especially for unpaid overtime, tip-credit errors and misclassification. It does not guarantee an investigation of every complaint, and a specific, documented one improves the odds.

File with your state at the same time

The WHD enforces federal law only. Most states have their own wage agency, and state law can have higher minimums, longer lookbacks or bigger penalties. California workers file with the Labor Commissioner, New York workers with the Division of Labor Standards, Texas workers with the Texas Workforce Commission and Colorado workers with the Division of Labor Standards. Our state guides (California, New York, Illinois) list the routes. Filing both takes about thirty minutes and costs nothing.

Retaliation protection

It is illegal to fire, demote or cut the hours of a worker for filing a WHD complaint or cooperating in an investigation. If it happens, file a separate retaliation complaint immediately. The federal deadline is two years, three if willful, but some state retaliation statutes are much shorter, some as short as 30 days. Keep a note of the date you complained, the date of any adverse action and who delivered it.

Frequently asked questions

Is the complaint really confidential? The WHD keeps your identity confidential to the extent the law allows and often interviews several employees so that no one is singled out. In a very small workplace, total anonymity cannot always be guaranteed.

What if I already quit or was fired? You can still file. The two-year FLSA clock runs from each underpaid payday, not your last day.

Can the WHD recover wages for my coworkers too? Yes. Investigations often expand to everyone affected by the same pay practice.

Do I have to testify in court? Generally no. Most investigations are resolved through records and confidential interviews.

Put a number in the complaint

A complaint with a figure attached gets taken more seriously. Build a week-by-week estimate with the back-pay calculator before you submit. If you want to try a written demand first, the $29 Claim Kit pre-fills the letter and includes a state filing guide. This is general information, not legal advice.