The one thing that many companies have in common is that may have to pass a Department of Labor audit. The DOL obviously targets all industries, but it make makes a concerted effort to target low-wage industries; these industries include agriculture, restaurants, security guard services, home health care, and hotels/motels. So can you survive a DOL audit? Of course you can, if you have the last three years of payroll and time sheet data!
So what is the DOL looking for? For the most part, the DOL is auditing to ensure that that minimum wage, labor laws, and employee overtime laws are being followed correctly. Also, the DOL spends a large amount of its effort trying to find overtime violations.
What documents will I need? You’ll need the last three years of payroll, time sheets, employment history, jobs, and I-9 form data.
What happens if they find a violation? Don’t stress. In many cases you may be able to fix a violation without any penalties. For more egregious errors, you may be on the receiving end of a fine. That’s why having a time clock tool for record keeping can really help.
We’ll leave you with a few tips for passing your labor audit:
- Make sure that you have an attorney who knows labor laws, and has worked with the DOL before.
- Start keeping good records NOW by using an employee scheduling and time clock system like TrackSmart Scheduling (shameless plug :)). TrackSmart Scheduling stores all of your time clock data, so that it’s easily accessible. Also, you can always export your time clock data to Excel for easy analysis.
- The DOL will request a number of documents from you. Be sure to review everything they are requesting and ensure the documents’ accuracy. This is a very import step; you may want your lawyer to help you ensure your records are in order.
