Wage Theft by State
States ranked by total back wages owed from DOL Wage and Hour Division enforcement. $2.92B in back wages across 99,959 WHD cases. Data from OSHA enforcement records and the DOL Wage and Hour Division, covering workplace safety and wage violations across all 50 states; see our methodology.
Texas leads with $352.51M in back wages owed; the bar behind each state's total shows it as a share of that leader.
| # | State | WHD Cases | Employers w/ WHD | Avg per Case | Total Back Wages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 14,000 | 12,327 | $25K | $352.51M |
| 2 | California | 7,768 | 7,080 | $37K | $285.85M |
| 3 | New York | 5,773 | 5,294 | $35K | $201.57M |
| 4 | Florida | 7,789 | 7,304 | $26K | $199.75M |
| 5 | Virginia | 2,783 | 2,536 | $54K | $150.62M |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | 3,639 | 3,272 | $39K | $143.40M |
| 7 | New Jersey | 3,206 | 2,987 | $34K | $108.11M |
| 8 | Maryland | 1,288 | 1,144 | $77K | $99.28M |
| 9 | Illinois | 3,237 | 2,959 | $25K | $82.50M |
| 10 | Puerto Rico | 1,154 | 1,066 | $70K | $80.54M |
| 11 | Georgia | 3,087 | 2,879 | $25K | $78.56M |
| 12 | North Carolina | 3,450 | 3,210 | $21K | $73.19M |
| 13 | Arizona | 1,671 | 1,557 | $41K | $68.86M |
| 14 | Ohio | 2,724 | 2,494 | $25K | $68.24M |
| 15 | Massachusetts | 1,825 | 1,739 | $33K | $60.30M |
| 16 | Tennessee | 2,035 | 1,868 | $28K | $56.95M |
| 17 | Michigan | 3,158 | 2,909 | $18K | $56.52M |
| 18 | Louisiana | 1,521 | 1,447 | $32K | $49.16M |
| 19 | Washington | 966 | 915 | $42K | $40.16M |
| 20 | Missouri | 2,077 | 1,912 | $18K | $37.60M |
| 21 | Oklahoma | 1,775 | 1,609 | $21K | $37.18M |
| 22 | South Carolina | 1,528 | 1,452 | $23K | $34.97M |
| 23 | Alabama | 1,752 | 1,598 | $19K | $32.80M |
| 24 | Minnesota | 917 | 866 | $33K | $30.46M |
| 25 | Indiana | 1,220 | 1,141 | $25K | $29.99M |
| 26 | Wisconsin | 1,104 | 1,000 | $27K | $29.83M |
| 27 | Mississippi | 1,385 | 1,309 | $21K | $28.93M |
| 28 | Colorado | 1,488 | 1,362 | $19K | $28.24M |
| 29 | Nevada | 839 | 743 | $33K | $27.54M |
| 30 | Kansas | 1,430 | 1,320 | $18K | $25.38M |
| 31 | Kentucky | 993 | 915 | $25K | $24.81M |
| 32 | New Mexico | 922 | 814 | $27K | $24.69M |
| 33 | Utah | 1,067 | 988 | $23K | $24.43M |
| 34 | Iowa | 1,077 | 1,006 | $20K | $21.83M |
| 35 | Connecticut | 806 | 752 | $27K | $21.80M |
| 36 | Hawaii | 758 | 726 | $28K | $21.32M |
| 37 | Arkansas | 1,435 | 1,280 | $14K | $20.18M |
| 38 | Northern Mariana Islands | 280 | 233 | $67K | $18.62M |
| 39 | West Virginia | 643 | 614 | $27K | $17.49M |
| 40 | New Hampshire | 674 | 633 | $23K | $15.17M |
| 41 | Nebraska | 702 | 642 | $21K | $14.74M |
| 42 | Oregon | 595 | 562 | $25K | $14.67M |
| 43 | Idaho | 560 | 534 | $21K | $12.00M |
| 44 | Rhode Island | 498 | 436 | $23K | $11.49M |
| 45 | District of Columbia | 215 | 186 | $51K | $11.02M |
| 46 | Guam | 214 | 195 | $51K | $10.91M |
| 47 | Delaware | 190 | 177 | $32K | $6.07M |
| 48 | Maine | 390 | 362 | $15K | $5.83M |
| 49 | Alaska | 177 | 151 | $31K | $5.56M |
| 50 | Vermont | 265 | 254 | $19K | $4.96M |
| 51 | South Dakota | 363 | 344 | $13K | $4.77M |
| 52 | North Dakota | 136 | 133 | $31K | $4.23M |
| 53 | Wyoming | 171 | 163 | $16K | $2.77M |
| 54 | Montana | 126 | 115 | $20K | $2.57M |
| 55 | American Samoa | 78 | 73 | $25K | $1.99M |
| 56 | Virgin Islands | 35 | 35 | $25K | $873K |
About This Data
Back wages data from the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD), covering enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) including minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor standards. State totals aggregate all WHD enforcement cases for employers headquartered in each state. Data sourced from data.dol.gov.
Every figure on PlainWorker is rendered directly from official U.S. Department of Labor OSHA and Wage & Hour Division enforcement records, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.