14 low-wage industries had over a week's worth of stolen pay recovered per affected worker in 2025: Average recovered stolen time per affected worker by industry, fiscal year 2025
| Industry | Recovered Days Stolen |
|---|---|
| Temporary Help | 14.3 |
| Apparel Manufacturing | 12.9 |
| Hair, Nail & Skin Care Services | 9.4 |
| Landscaping Services | 7.8 |
| Retail | 7.4 |
| Janitorial Services | 7.3 |
| Food Services | 7.2 |
| Utilities | 7.2 |
| Animal Processing | 7.2 |
| Guard Services | 6.9 |
| Construction | 6.3 |
| Auto Repair | 5.8 |
| Warehousing | 5.7 |
| Health Care | 5.5 |
Notes: Recovered days stolen was calculated by dividing the average amount of back wages recovered by the WHD in FY 2025 by the median wage in each industry weighted by the share of FLSA infringements that are violations of overtime rules (because we assume recovered back wages from overtime violations of the FLSA should be paid out at a rate of 1.5 times the worker's regular wage). To convert from hours to days, we divided by eight, the standard amount of hours in a single work day. The available data does not allow us to make any further assumptions about the additional hours worked past the eight in a given week.
Source: EPI analysis of U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD), “Low Wage, High Violation Industries” (web page) and Bureau of Labor Statistics "Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics" (web page), accessed on June 16, 2026.
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