United States DOL announces that it will no longer oversee the payment of liquidated damages in FLSA administrative hearings

Last week the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (“WHD”) made a significant announcement concerning the available damages in administrative proceedings. In a field assistance bulletin it published online, the Department of Labor withdrew the prior administration’s guidance on liquidated damages in administrative hearings and clarified that, effective immediately, WHD “may not seek or collect the payment of liquidated damages in any administrative matter under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” This means that in the administrative setting, the range of damages that the