A recent survey of 2,000 legal, ethics and HR professionals by California-based ELT (Employment Law Learning Technologies), which provides ethics and legal compliance training, revealed a surprisingly high number of companies have substantial problems relating to wage and hour reporting. According to the Department of Labor, 70 percent of all U.S. employees are noncompliant in wage and hour issues, and federal wage and hour cases increased by 86 percent between 2004 and 2006. Although costly wage and hour lawsuits are on the rise, problems are often easily preventable. Here are some of the survey's results:

– 60 percent of ELT's 2,000 respondents believed employees did not accurately report hours worked or were unsure if they were reporting accurately.

– 40 percent were unconfident that their employees knew how to file a wage and hour complaint.

– Less than 25 percent provided any wage and hour training to employees, while 60 percent reported giving “extensive” harassment and discrimination training.