According to a report published by payroll services company ADP, class and collective action filings in federal court increased nearly 500 percent between 2001 and 2011. An analysis of court data reflects that, as of the date of the ADP report, 90 percent of all employment law class and collective actions filed across the country were wage-and-hour cases. An analysis conducted by Seyfarth Shaw of Federal Judicial Center data shows that, for the period ending March 31, federal wage-and-hour filings increased for the seventh straight year. Class and collective action claims are not just more numerous every year, they are more expensive too—according to a report published by NERA Economic Consulting, companies paid, on average, about $4.5 million to resolve a wage-and-hour case in 2013.
In spite of these costs and increased filings, there is no evidence that individual employees enjoy better outcomes in class actions. To the contrary, there is a growing drumbeat of criticism that most of the gains from class and collective action litigation inure to the benefit of plaintiffs attorneys rather than to class members. Indeed, a 2012 empirical analysis of class actions by Mayer Brown found that the vast majority of class actions resulted in no benefits at all for most putative class members.
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