The number of wage-and-hour lawsuits has skyrocketed in New York federal courts, exceeding already-accelerating national trends.
The lawsuits, brought by workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, generally claim employers did not pay sufficient wages or overtime, often contending they misclassified workers as exempt from overtime payments.
Among New York’s four federal district courts, the largest increases are found in Southern and Eastern districts, according to Federal Judicial Center statistics provided to the New York Law Journal.
The Southern District saw 682 new FLSA suits in the last fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012, a 626 percent leap from 94 filings in fiscal year 2003.