ALBUQUERQUE — A day's work in an oilfield usually means long hours in physically demanding and exhausting conditions. Industry workers deserve every penny of their hard-earned wages. In the oil-and-gas-rich Southwest, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division is making sure these workers get their pay. Since it launched an enforcement initiative covering New Mexico and west Texas in 2014, the agency has recovered more than $1.3 million owed to more than 1,300 workers.

Date of Action: March 6, 2015

Type of Action: FLSA lawsuit

Names of Defendants: DT & C Global Management LLC d/b/a/ Town & Country Limousine, John Jansen, William Lynch

MOUNTAINSIDE, N.J. — In the past five years, more than 1,100 attendants at Shell, Exxon, BP and other leading brand gas stations in New Jersey have been denied the minimum wage and, in some cases, overtime pay. These workers have received $5.5 million in back wages and damages recovered thanks to a multiyear enforcement initiative conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

MOUNTAINSIDE, N.J. — In the past five years, more than 1,100 attendants at Shell, Exxon, BP and other leading brand gas stations in New Jersey have been denied the minimum wage and, in some cases, overtime pay. These workers have received $5.5 million in back wages and damages recovered thanks to a multiyear enforcement initiative conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico — Alpha Guards Management Inc. provides security guards to ensure the safety of employees of businesses and government agencies in Puerto Rico. Yet, the San Juan-based employer failed to protect its own employees by violating their right to a fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

Employer: Wave USA Inc., doing business as Ka Nalu Wedding, Blue Blue Flowers

Site: Honolulu

Employer name: Viacell LLC doing business as A Devoted Care Provider

Site: Corporate office in Stafford, Texas, and six group homes investigated in the Houston area

Employer: Paradise Inn Hawaii LLC, doing business as Tsukiji Fish Market Restaurant

Site: One restaurant location at the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu

Employer: Long Feng Corporation, doing business as New XO Market in Saipan and Tian Hong Market in Tinian

Site: Grocery store, poker arcade and coin laundry establishments in Saipan and Tinian

DALLAS — Living on the minimum wage is tough enough when workers are paid for all hours worked and harder still for employees who work off the clock and are not paid fully for their labor. Unpaid wages leave workers and their families to confront difficult choices, like buying medicine for a sick child or purchasing food.

PR Drywall of Hillsboro, Oregon, underpays 7 workers in wages and overtime

Employer underpays staff, denies employment to qualified domestic workers

Employer: Device Inside Inc., which provides mobile device testing and other related services for Samsung.

Site: Corporate office in Dallas, Texas and a branch office in Bellevue, Washington

DALLAS — Many workers in Texas with families in Mexico and Central America depend on money-transfer businesses to send money to their loved ones. America Transfers Inc. and Mexico Transfers Inc. employees work long hours to help these workers support their families abroad. Unfortunately, their employers and the companies' owners, Silvia Miranda and Jose Zamudio, had no similar concern for their workers. Wage and Hour Division Dallas District Office investigators found employees were willfully and repeatedly underpaid.

WASHINGTON — Workers in legal, same-sex marriages, regardless of where they live, will now have the same rights as those in opposite-sex marriages to federal job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for a spouse with a serious health condition. The U.S. Labor Department announced a rule change to the FMLA today in keeping with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Windsor.

BOSTON — A follow-up investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division has found that Whately agribusiness Chang & Sons Enterprises Inc., and its owner Sidney Chang, continue to deny workers the wages they have legally earned, despite prior investigations and a legal judgment requiring the employer to pay back wages and comply with federal wage and hour laws.

Site: New Mexico and West Texas

Type of Action: Ongoing multi-year enforcement initiative.

Date of Action: Feb. 4, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Name of Defendant: U.S. Cotton LLC, 15501 Industrial Parkway, Cleveland, Ohio

Allegations: U.S. Cotton LLC, of Cleveland, wrongfully terminated the employment of a pregnant machine operator who requested leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act due to illness related to her pregnancy.

HONOLULU — M.H. Electric has paid $290,588 in back wages to 65 workers after the U.S. Department of Labor determined that the Honolulu-based subcontractor violated federal wage and hour laws at 10 federally funded construction projects awarded in Hawaii between 2012 and 2014 by the Hawaii Air National Guard and the U.S. Departments of the Navy, Army and Veterans Affairs. In resolving the department's allegations, the company also paid an additional $14,507 in back wages and damages for overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

SEATTLE — More than three-quarters of janitorial service companies investigated nationally by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division in the past two fiscal years failed to pay low-wage workers fairly and legally for the work they do. Of the division's 1,221 janitorial industry investigations, 76 percent resulted in violations and led to the recovery of $7.9 million in unpaid wages for nearly 10,000 workers.