Oregon labor agency plans to nix income threshold for wage claims by end of year

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A year after Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries revealed an enormous backlog in wage claims, the agency is closer to ending the salary threshold it was “forced” to implement.

In the State Of the Worker Report uncovered on Wednesday, BOLI said it expects to lift the income threshold by the end of this year. It was first implemented in October 2024, with the bureau automatically dismissing wage claims from workers with an hourly pay exceeding $24.34 and annual earnings that exceed $52,710.

This policy came as Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson announced the bureau was facing a significant lack of funding that impacted its staffing levels and therefore hindered its ability to address workers’ theft claims. Wage claims had also increased by more than 200% since 2020.

But earlier this June, Oregon leaders approved a biennial budget of more than $80 million for the agency — representing a 30% increase from the previous budget. The investment is the “largest boost to BOLI in a generation,” the new report claimed.

“Implementation is underway,” the report reads. “BOLI is onboarding staff, upgrading case management technology, and operating with new performance metrics that track screening times and case resolution. Two big goals: clear the intake backlog by 2027 and resolve the investigation backlog by 2029. Along the way, we will report progress publicly and adjust staffing, training, and technology to hit targets.”

As of August 2024, the Wage & Hour Division — which assesses wage claims and investigates workplace law violations — had an intake backlog of 4,074 cases and an investigations backlog of 3,515 cases. Although the intake backlog has declined by about 50% in the year since, the investigation backlog increased due to each case making its way through several stages of BOLI’s administrative process.

Immigration-related retaliation against workers who file wage claims was another focus of the report. BOLI doesn’t track whether retaliation cases are based on an employee’s immigration status, but a spokesperson previously told KOIN 6 that staff have noticed an uptick in these reports.

“No matter what happens in Washington D.C., Oregon law hasn’t changed, and neither has BOLI’s resolve,” Commissioner Stephenson added in a statement. “We will protect all workers, regardless of gender identity and regardless of immigration status.”