18th Annual Workplace Class Action Report - 2022 Edition

8 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report: 2022 Edition Relatedly, the top 10 settlements in government enforcement litigation experienced a downward turn in 2021, as they decreased to a total of $146.38 million. In 2020, those settlements totaled $241.0 million, a significant jump from the $57.52 million employers saw in 2019 and from the $126.7 million recorded in 2018. Thus, although the numbers decreased in 2021, they outpaced the numbers lodged in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019 and fell closer to the average year-over-year value of the top 10 settlements from 2012 to 2020 of $168.82 million . 3 This trend is illustrated by the following chart of settlements from 2013 to 2021: Settlement trends in workplace class action litigation are impacted by many factors. In the coming year, settlement activity is apt to be influenced by developing case law, case filing trends of the plaintiffs’ class action bar, the Biden Administration’s labor and employment enforcement policies, and class certification rulings. (ii) Class Certification Trends In 2021 Complex workplace litigation remains one of the chief exposures driving corporate legal budgetary expenditures. Class actions and multi-plaintiff lawsuits, in particular, continue to provide a source of concern for companies. A prime component in that array of risks indisputably continues to include complex wage & hour litigation. The following map sets forth a circuit-by-circuit analysis of this year’s 332 class certification decisions in all varieties of workplace class action litigation, including wage & hour, employment discrimination, and ERISA. As the map reflects, in 2021, complex wage & hour litigation under the FLSA drove more certification briefings and a greater number of certification decisions than other areas combined. 3 The total for the top ten government enforcement litigation settlements in 2012 was $262.78 million. Aside from 2017, when such settlements totaled $485.25 million, the top ten government enforcement settlements remained under $200 million every year from 2013 through 2019.