Number of federal wage and hour investigators is near its historic low: Number of Wage and Hour Division investigators, U.S. Department of Labor, 1973–2022
| Year | Investigators on board at year’s end |
|---|---|
| 1973 | 812 |
| 1974 | 869 |
| 1975 | 921 |
| 1976 | 964 |
| 1977 | 980 |
| 1978 | 1,232 |
| 1979 | 1,087 |
| 1980 | 1,059 |
| 1981 | 953 |
| 1982 | 914 |
| 1983 | 928 |
| 1984 | 916 |
| 1985 | 950 |
| 1986 | 908 |
| 1987 | 951 |
| 1988 | 952 |
| 1989 | 970 |
| 1990 | 938 |
| 1991 | 865 |
| 1992 | 835 |
| 1993 | 804 |
| 1994 | 800 |
| 1995 | 809 |
| 1996 | 781 |
| 1997 | 942 |
| 1998 | 942 |
| 1999 | 938 |
| 2000 | 949 |
| 2001 | 945 |
| 2002 | 898 |
| 2003 | 850 |
| 2004 | 788 |
| 2005 | 773 |
| 2006 | 751 |
| 2007 | 732 |
| 2008 | 731 |
| 2009 | 894 |
| 2010 | 1,035 |
| 2011 | 1,024 |
| 2012 | 1,067 |
| 2013 | 1,040 |
| 2014 | 976 |
| 2015 | 995 |
| 2016 | 974 |
| 2017 | 912 |
| 2018 | 835 |
| 2019 | 780 |
| 2020 | 823 |
| 2021 | 782 |
| 2022 | 810 |
Note: Numbers represent Wage and Hour Division investigators on staff at the end of each fiscal year (the federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30), except for 2022, which represents the number of investigators on staff at the end of November 2022.
Sources: Author’s analysis of Wage and Hour Division (WHD) data on number of investigators from unpublished Excel files provided by WHD staff members to the author. Source for 2020 and 2021 is Rebecca Rainey, “Wage-Hour Investigator Hiring Plans Signal DOL Enforcement Drive,” Bloomberg Law, January 28, 2022. Source for 2022 is Rebecca Rainey, "Wage Division Enforcement Declines Again in Wake of Hiring Woes," Bloomberg Law, Decemer 28, 2022.