Are minimum wage laws enforced in NC?

Special thanks to an anonymous commenter who says s/he is a former employee of the NC Department of Labor, Wage & Hour and who made the comment below about our state's enforcement of wage laws.

(As a side note, I read the department's website and found the following paragraph:

The Wage and Hour Act includes employee protection for minimum wage and overtime payments, payment of promised wages not normally covered by law, youth employment, and recordkeeping. The minimum wage, overtime and youth employment provisions generally parallel the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and apply to all businesses whose annual dollar volume is under $500,000. The minimum wage rate is currently $6.15 an hour in North Carolina.

Does anyone know what it means when it says that the minimum wage applies only to businesses whose annual dollar volume is under $500,000?)

From the commenter:

Just came across your blog. I wish you the best with this one.

As a former employee of the NC Dept of Labor, Wage & Hour in Raleigh, I can tell you that even if the minimum wage is increased, employers who break the law by not paying it, nothing will happen to them.

It is my belief based on what I saw on a daily basis for over 4 years, the idea in Raleigh is to make one phone call and send one letter to the employer and if there is no response, then the claim gets tossed. Wages are recovered, yes. Its just that everybody who has been screwed out of a paycheck isn't lucky. I dont think that it should be a matter of luck. I think they either enforce the laws or get rid of them. If it is so problematic for Wage & Hour to recover wages for working people, then either hire more workers, or fix the law so employers fear the wrath of the Dept of Labor. Right now employers know they have nothing to fear.

I was amazed at the number of employers in this state who do not even pay regular wages to their employees. Much less minimum wage.

This is a very serious problem in our state that nobody seems to want to address. The DOL claims they handle THOUSANDS of complaints a year. That is alot of people getting screwed out of their hard earned money.

I can only guess that at the MOST, over the past 5 years, only 3 cases have made it to the AG's office for actual litigation. It might be interesting to find out how many cases the Labor Section with the AG's office has actually taken to court for minimum wage violations or non-payment of wages.

As it stands now, the laws on the books in NC to enforce wage payment are useless words on paper. This is sad because there are people right now in prisons for less crimes. Screwing someone out of their hard earned money should be a felony, in my opinion.

Good luck with the crusade. I will keep checking back.