Fair Labor Standards Act Preemption of State Wage-and-Hour Law Claims

Wage-and-hour class actions are by far the most common type of class action claim filed in federal court, accounting for nearly 20 percent of all class action suits. Employees bring wage-and-hour class actions to recover unpaid wages. The stakes are high. Employers pay out at least $1 billion annually in these cases. Wal-Mart recently settled sixty-three wage-and-hour class action suits for an estimated $342 to $640 million and still has another twelve suits pending. Even with this large volume of litigation, a fundamental question remains unanswered: does state or federal law determine the remedies available and the procedures used in these suits?