Since 2007, NERA Economic Consulting has compiled a report on wage and hour settlement trends. The 2015 report offers an update on wage and hour settlement trends with an additional 27 months of civil wage and hour data. Click here to review the key findings and trends in wage and hour settlements.
Demographic
The 2015 NERA report includes trends in settlements per plaintiff and per class period year. Of their cases surveyed, NERA was able to determine the number of plaintiffs in a settlement for 75% of their cases. Further, they had a 66% determination for the number of plaintiffs and the settlement amount they received. In 2014, there was an increase in the number of cases involving 10,000 or more plaintiffs. However, from 2010 to 2013 there was a steady decrease in those cases.
Average Settlement per Plaintiff
NERA found that the average settlement per plaintiff was $5,742. However, this average is skewed due to 5% of plaintiffs who received an average settlement of $25,000. The median settlement for plaintiffs was $2,576. A higher number of plaintiffs will result in a larger settlement, but each plaintiff will receive less.
Average Settlement per Year
There was a 40% determination of the settlement amount, including number of plaintiffs and number of years covered by the settlement. The median and average duration of a class period was about 5 years. The longer the class period the larger the settlement tended to be, however there was no differences in the settlement per year. The average settlement per class year was less than $5,000 per plaintiff. The few cases with settlements that were more than $5,000 per plaintiff involved misclassification and overtime and were in telecommunications or financial services industries. As of recently, the average per plaintiff per class year has decreased.
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Sources:
http://www.nera.com/content/dam/nera/publications/2015/PUB_Wage_and_Hour_Settlements_0715.pdf