Three Wage and Hour Risks Healthcare HR Leaders Should Audit Now

DOL collected over $53 million in healthcare back wages in FY 2025, signaling ongoing enforcement pressure.

HR Solution Journal News Desk

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Healthcare employers face persistent wage and hour scrutiny, with the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division recording 2,370 compliance actions and recovering more than $53 million in back wages across the sector in fiscal year 2025, according to Baker Donelson attorneys writing in HR Daily Advisor. They identify three audit priorities: automatic meal-break deductions that go uncorrected when employees work through breaks; off-the-clock work that supervisors may recognize but fail to address; and overtime miscalculations caused by excluding shift differentials or incentive pay from the regular-rate calculation. Targeted reviews of timekeeping systems, supervisor training, and payroll configurations, the attorneys advise, offer a practical compliance path without requiring broad policy overhauls.

Source: HR Daily Advisor. Original announcement: October 05, 2026.