Silent Workers, Disappearing Rights: Confidential Settlements and the Fair Labor Standards Act

Abstract

The Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) sets minimum wages and maximum hours for the nation’s workers. Nevertheless, employers steal billions of dollars each year from low-wage workers. This article argues that a faithful reading of the FLSA requires courts to bar confidential settlements of claims brought under the statute. A rule against confidentiality would make public a significant amount of information about wage theft. That information is a prerequisite to encouraging individual workers to enforce their rights and to generating broader public awareness about the epidemic of wage theft that low-wage workers face.