Conducted every ten years, the Census is the largest survey in the United States. The 2010 Census represented the most massive participation movement ever witnessed in the US, with approximately 74% of households returning their census by mail. The Census Bureau hired about 635,000 employees to walk through neighborhoods throughout the United States to count the remaining households.

The 100% characteristics form was used with every person and housing unit in the United States. It includes information on sex, age, and race by geographic location. Census data is available at many geographic levels, including blocks, zip codes, county, and state.

The 2010 Census asked detailed questions that include information on educational attainment, marital status, labor-force status, and income. The Census is a very large database and hence has many uses ranging from racial profiling in police-stop baselines to wage data.

For more information, please go to www.census.gov/

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of approximately 50,000 households conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the U.S. Census Bureau. The CPS collects a vast amount of data and is an excellent resource for information on labor-force characteristics.

The basic monthly CPS provides general demographic information as well as employment status, industry, and occupation. The monthly survey is often used to examine unemployment rates and the duration of unemployment. The BLS publishes tables reporting the unemployment rate and the average and median duration of unemployment by gender and age, race, or marital status. These tables are generally referenced in wrongful termination cases to show the expected length of time it will take the plaintiff to find a new job.

In addition to the basic monthly survey, the CPS includes monthly supplements. These supplements include displaced workers, job tenure, and mobility, and a demographic supplement (often referred to as the March supplement), just to name a few.

The job tenure supplement can be used to estimate the amount of time an individual would have likely remained at a job if the termination had not occurred. The demographic supplement is often used to determine average and median wages for particular education levels. Additionally, regression analysis can be used to estimate lifecycle earnings for individuals based on their age or years of experience, education, and other pertinent demographic factors.

For more information, please go to www.bls.gov/cps/

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by food service managers. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 47.14% of food service managers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 16.59 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $18.57 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $27.85 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by telemarketers. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 21.43% of telemarketers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 11.67 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $8.48 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $12.72 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by registered nurses who work in hospitals. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 15.44% of registered nurses in hospitals work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 10.29 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $26.15 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $39.22 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work as police officers. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 30.86% of police officers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 12.6 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $27.24 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $40.86 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work in retail sales occupations, specifically in electronics stores. Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week. The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 17.95% of retail salespersons in electronic stores work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 12.14 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $13.89 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $20.84 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work in truck driving occupations.

Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week.

The tabulations below are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 44.11% of truck drivers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 14.5 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately $18.74 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay, is $28.11 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)

That’s a question that comes up a lot in wage and hour land employment lawsuits.  Typically the question is how many employees do I need to  look at to have a statistically significant sample?

In some instances it’s not feasible to collect data or get all the records for
all the employees of a particular company. Sometimes the data is kept
in such a way that it takes a lot of effort to get that information.  In
other instances it is a matter of the limitations of imposed by the court.

In any event, that’s a question that comes up a number times in wage and hour lawsuits particularly ones involving class or collective actions. So what’s the answer?

Generally, the size of the sample needs to be sufficiently large so that it is representative of
the entire employee population. That number could be relatively small say 40 employees or relatively large say to 200 employees depending on the number of employees at the company and the characteristics of the employee universe that is being analyzed.

For example if there are no meaningful distinctions between the employees in the universe, that is
it is generally accepted that all the employees are pretty much all
similarly situated, then a sheer simple random sample could be
appropriate.

That is, you could simply draw names from a hat, essentially. A simple random sample typically requires the smallest number of employees.

If there are distinctions between employees that need to be accounted for, then
either a larger sample or some type of stratified sampling could be appropriate.
Even if there are distinctions between employees, if the sample is sufficiently large then distinctions between the employees in the data could take care of themselves.

For instance, assume that you have a population of 10,000 employees and they are
divided into four different groups  that need to be looked at differently.

One way to do a sample in this setting is to sample over each of the different groups of employees separately. The main purpose of the individual samples is to make sure that you have the appropriate number of employees in each of the different groups. That is, to make sure that the number of employees in the different samples are sufficiently representative of the distribution of the different groups of employees in the overall population.

Another way to do this is to simply just take a large enough sample so that the distinctions take care of themselves.  If the sample is sufficiently large then the distribution of the different groups of employees in the sample should on be representative of the employee population as a whole.

So in this example, if there is a sufficiently large sample it could be okay to use a simple random sample and you would get to the same point as a more advanced stratified type of approach.

The key however is to make sure that the sample is sufficiently large that of course depends on the overall population and the number of groups of employees being studied.

In this post, we look at the weekly overtime (OT) hours typically worked by those who work in Derrick, rotary drill, and services unit operators, oil, gas, and mining occupations.

Many of the employees that work in these jobs are not exempt from FLSA overtime pay and earn 1.5 times pay for hours worked over 40 in a given week.

The tabulations below are based on U.S. BLS survey data. The BLS job title groups are insightful, generally containing more specific job titles with similar knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA), but can be more broad than a particular company’s job title listing. Also, some companies may have the job title listed here as exempt from FLSA or state OT due to their specific job assignments. The BLS does not make a distinction as to if the job title is exempt or non-exempt from OT.

U.S. BLS data indicates that approximately 66.67% of Derrick, rotary drill, and services unit operators, oil, gas, and mining workers work overtime hours in a given week.  On average, these workers that have FLSA overtime work approximately 25.6 hours a week in OT. The average regular or straight time pay rate of these workers in the U.S. is approximately 32.10 an hour.  The average FLSA OT rate, not including supplemental pay such as non-discretionary bonus pay is 48.14 an hour.

Source: BLS (CPS March)