Figure A
Federal wage and hour (WHD) investigators now responsible for far more workers than their counterparts 40 years ago: Employment per WHD investigator, 1978–2018
| Year | Covered workers per investigator |
|---|---|
| 1978 | 69,389 |
| 1979 | 81,717 |
| 1980 | 84,215 |
| 1981 | 94,420 |
| 1982 | 96,685 |
| 1983 | 96,019 |
| 1984 | 102,192 |
| 1985 | 101,383 |
| 1986 | 108,196 |
| 1987 | 106,272 |
| 1988 | 109,526 |
| 1989 | 110,348 |
| 1990 | 115,782 |
| 1991 | 123,495 |
| 1992 | 128,529 |
| 1993 | 136,072 |
| 1994 | 140,628 |
| 1995 | 142,663 |
| 1996 | 150,856 |
| 1997 | 128,473 |
| 1998 | 131,717 |
| 1999 | 135,355 |
| 2000 | 136,859 |
| 2001 | 137,181 |
| 2002 | 142,799 |
| 2003 | 150,348 |
| 2004 | 164,059 |
| 2005 | 170,209 |
| 2006 | 178,208 |
| 2007 | 184,926 |
| 2008 | 184,413 |
| 2009 | 143,857 |
| 2010 | 123,498 |
| 2011 | 126,378 |
| 2012 | 123,427 |
| 2013 | 128,816 |
| 2014 | 139,973 |
| 2015 | 140,193 |
| 2016 | 145,657 |
| 2017 | 157,741 |
| 2018 | 175,335 |
Source: EPI calculations from the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor's data on investigators on board from 1978-2017 and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data on the total number of employees covered by unemployment insurance programs in the U.S from 1978–2017. At the time of writing, full year 2018 data were not available, so the 2018 number of covered workers is imputed as the 2017 QCEW value multiplied by the ratio of the 2018 annual average of all employees in the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey to the 2017 CES annual average.
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