The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards New York and New Jersey employers must adhere to. The law protects employees from unfair treatment in the workplace.
The FLSA covers areas including minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor laws and recordkeeping. If you feel like your employer is violating the FLSA, you may want to report the behavior but remain anonymous.
There are various reasons you might want to stay anonymous. One of the biggest reasons is likely to avoid being fired, demoted or otherwise retaliated against by your employer.
Although retaliation against an employee for reporting FLSA violations is illegal under federal law, proving retaliation can be challenging. Additionally, even if your employer does not retaliate, you may worry about continuing to work for an employer who knows you filed a complaint against them.
No, you cannot usually file an anonymous FLSA claim
Given these concerns, you might wonder if you can report an FLSA violation anonymously. Unfortunately, the answer is generally no.
Submitting an FLSA claim anonymously depends on the specific policies and procedures of the agency to which you submit your complaint. However, you typically cannot submit an unpaid wage claim to any agency anonymously since they need to know your identity to investigate your complaint.
The Department of Labor (DOL) is the agency that enforces the FLSA. The DOL will not usually allow anonymous complaints. Outside of your name, they need other job-related information to act on the complaint.
What you can do to protect yourself
Since you likely cannot file an FLSA claim anonymously but still want to protect your rights, your best course of action is to gather as much evidence as possible. This includes pay stubs, payroll records, employment contracts and anything in your employee file. Your employer should give you access to your employee file upon request.
From there, consider talking with someone outside of your workplace in a confidential setting to determine your rights and options going forward.