The U.S. Department of Labor is trying to find 600 Delawareans owed back pay from jobs, often because they moved between jobs or changed names. Photo by Pixabay/Pexels
Nearly 600 Delaware workers are owed approximately $398,000 in back wages recovered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.
This includes 268 workers in Kent County, 104 workers in New Castle County and 172 workers in Sussex County.
In many cases, the employees change jobs or change addresses and cannot be notified of the money due to them.
Name changes or an employer’s failure to retain contact information can also make it difficult for the Wage and Hour Division to find employees and put back wages into their hands.
The Wage and Hour Division can only hold unclaimed back wages for three years before it is required to turn it over to the Department of the Treas
Back wages search tool
In an effort to reach out to people and help them claim the money they are owed, the agency has developed an online search tool, Workers Owed Wages (WOW) that allows workers to enter information to find out if the division is holding back wages on their behalf.
The WOW system is currently available in English and Spanish and allows workers and their advocates to answer a series of questions to determine if they are owed wages and to easily claim them.
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For assistance with the Workers Owed Wages system, workers and advocates can contact the Wage and Hour Division’s Philadelphia District Office at (215) 597-4950. Calls can be answered in more than 200 languages.
Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.
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