The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has emerged as one of the nation’s busiest federal district courts with respect to wage-and-hour litigation.  As reported by Crain’s Chicago Business, in 2015 alone, 542 Fair Labor Standards Act actions were filed in the Northern District of Illinois.  Between 2011 and 2015, wage-and-hour actions filed with the Northern District of Illinois increased by 117%, and this upward trend in wage-and-hour litigation is likely to continue in the near future.

As previously reported by Law 360, on a national basis, wage-and-hour filings increased by 9% from 8,066 filings in 2014 to 8,954 filings in 2015.  Since 2000, wage-and-hour filings increased by 450 percent.  Some of the top venues for wage-and-hour litigation include the federal district courts that encompass Miami, New York City, Orlando and Tampa.  Last year, a combined 4,186 wage-and-hour cases, nearly half of the 8,954 wage-and-hour cases filed nationwide, were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and district courts in New York and Florida.

Increased regulations and increased scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Labor on issues contributed to the year-to-year increase in wage-and-hour litigation.

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