here have been at least 1,800 complaints each year since 2019. Meanwhile, the unit’s staff has dropped. Ten years ago, in 2014, there were 42 staff members, including 31 wage enforcement agents and wage and hour investigators combined. This year, 30 total staff members remain, with 21 agents or investigators. The rest of the staff is clerical or managerial. The investigators are part of a specialized unit known as the Wage and Workplace Standards Division. A proposal this year could require the number of investigators to increase. The struggle over passing the bill deals with the cost of hiring additional staff and whether there’s space in the budget. Currently, most of the investigator positions are funded by the state’s general fund, but some positions are funded from the civil penalties the investigators impose on guilty businesses, which range anywhere from $300 to $1,000, depending on the violations.
CT’s wage-theft investigators facing growing backlog of cases