By Melanie TrottmanThe Labor Department is encouraging low-wage and immigrant workers to turn in employers who are shortchanging their pay, as part of an expanding effort to enforce wage and hour rules.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis launched a campaign last week called "We Can Help," asking workers in industries from construction to food services to notify the agency of suspected wage and hour violations.
The agency is also relying on tips from worker advocacy groups, widening efforts by the Obama administration to enlist activist groups to help with enforcement in a range of sectors from toy safety to distracted driving.
However, business groups are expressing concern that the Labor Department's effort will generate unfounded complaints.
Ms. Solis, a Hispanic-American, has signaled from early in her tenure that stepping up enforcement of wage and hour rules would be a high priority. The Labor Department's wage and hour division recently hired more than 250 additional investigators—an increase of one third—and is rolling out a publicity campaign that includes bilingual public-service announcements in Spanish and English.
The ads feature activists like Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, and actor Jimmy Smits, who has Puerto Rican roots and played a successful Hispanic presidential candidate in the TV drama "The West Wing."
The agency and independent groups, including labor federation AFL-CIO, will also distribute posters, fact sheets and booklets on pay and how to report complaints. The agency says its message isn't limited to low-wage and immigrant workers, but it is focusing on these groups because it says they tend to be most vulnerable. "It's about making sure that people know we're here and they know how to reach us," said a Labor Department spokesman, who noted protections cover pay for both legal and illegal immigrants who the agency says it won't punish because of their status.
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