Original data analysis · Published October 16, 2026
Payday did not settle the bill. Federal wage enforcement recorded $4.7 million in back wages in janitorial services and $3.1 million in landscaping in fiscal 2025. Civil money penalties added another $1.5 million and $452,000, respectively.
These are amounts recorded in federal enforcement, not an estimate of every employer’s unpaid wages. The comparison separates the money owed to workers from penalties and shows how much back pay was recorded per worker in the agency’s cases.
A small crew can face a large catch-up payment
Dividing industry back wages by the reported workers gives a practical scale for these cases. In janitorial services, the ratio was about $2,113 per worker; in landscaping, about $1,953. That is an aggregate average across the recorded workers, not the typical claim, a median, or a forecast for a new employer.
| Industry | Actions | Back wages | Workers | Back wages per worker | Civil penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child Care Services | 367 | $606,091 | 1,883 | $322 | $30,322 |
| Construction | 1,802 | $43,420,356 | 18,340 | $2,368 | $4,819,567 |
| Food Services | 4,088 | $42,663,929 | 30,029 | $1,421 | $23,057,822 |
| Guard Services | 491 | $10,965,507 | 6,287 | $1,744 | $509,947 |
| Janitorial Services | 299 | $4,715,195 | 2,231 | $2,113 | $1,526,683 |
| Landscaping Services | 207 | $3,115,696 | 1,595 | $1,953 | $451,922 |
The three-year context
A single year can be dominated by a few large cases. Read these annual totals alongside the current case counts rather than treating a change as evidence that all employers became more or less compliant.
| Industry | FY2023 back wages | FY2024 back wages | FY2025 back wages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child Care Services | $618,719 | $429,396 | $606,091 |
| Construction | $35,558,598 | $32,092,812 | $43,420,356 |
| Food Services | $29,648,592 | $35,141,615 | $42,663,929 |
| Guard Services | $5,250,544 | $3,668,661 | $10,965,507 |
| Janitorial Services | $3,755,640 | $3,473,597 | $4,715,195 |
| Landscaping Services | $3,063,867 | $4,014,501 | $3,115,696 |
All 20 industries in the source table
| Industry | Actions | Back wages | Workers | Civil penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health Care | 2,370 | $53,291,920 | 32,884 | $4,687,560 |
| Construction | 1,802 | $43,420,356 | 18,340 | $4,819,567 |
| Food Services | 4,088 | $42,663,929 | 30,029 | $23,057,822 |
| Guard Services | 491 | $10,965,507 | 6,287 | $509,947 |
| Retail | 1,058 | $8,646,369 | 5,203 | $3,607,329 |
| Temporary Help | 129 | $8,492,228 | 2,206 | $1,084,064 |
| Agriculture | 649 | $6,830,766 | 8,602 | $8,309,943 |
| Janitorial Services | 299 | $4,715,195 | 2,231 | $1,526,683 |
| Animal Processing | 69 | $4,378,093 | 1,833 | $2,155,648 |
| Landscaping Services | 207 | $3,115,696 | 1,595 | $451,922 |
| Trucking | 604 | $2,213,013 | 1,496 | $114,391 |
| Utilities | 36 | $1,653,478 | 413 | $0 |
| Auto Repair | 211 | $1,250,979 | 598 | $272,811 |
| Hotels and Motels | 427 | $1,188,123 | 1,687 | $436,917 |
| Apparel Manufacturing | 53 | $681,951 | 241 | $1,056 |
| Child Care Services | 367 | $606,091 | 1,883 | $30,322 |
| Warehousing | 74 | $468,362 | 201 | $57,147 |
| Logistics | 15 | $410,238 | 589 | $0 |
| Hair, Nail & Skin Care Services | 59 | $328,620 | 160 | $63,052 |
| Amusement | 139 | $245,755 | 473 | $2,189,660 |
Use the finding in your hiring budget
Write down how the team will record work, travel between jobs and pay-period totals. Build the cost of employer setup into the first hiring decision. Our landscaping business guide covers the parallel setup for a lawn-care crew.
The enforcement table does not identify why each violation happened. It cannot show whether software would have prevented a case, and these amounts are not insurance claims.
Sources and calculation
Checked October 16, 2026. We use the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division’s selected-industry enforcement table and its data definitions and resources. Fiscal 2025 ran October 1, 2024–September 30, 2025.
Back wages per worker = reported industry back wages ÷ reported workers receiving back wages. Actions, workers, back wages and civil money penalties remain separate. We do not divide cases by the total population of employers, combine overlapping case categories, or estimate a national violation probability. Recorded enforcement is not the whole universe of wage violations, and the comparison does not rank the honesty or safety of an industry.
Cite this study
StartBusinessByState.com. “The Wage Bill That Arrived After Payday.” Published October 16, 2026. https://startbusinessbystate.com/unpaid-wages-by-industry/.
Our original analysis and graphic are available under CC BY 4.0. Credit this study and link to this page when reusing them. Underlying source materials retain their own terms and remain available from the original agencies. This permission applies to our original analysis and graphic, not to the source publications.
Embed the chart with a credit link
<figure><a href="https://startbusinessbystate.com/unpaid-wages-by-industry/"><img src="https://startbusinessbystate.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/unpaid-wages-by-industry.png" alt="The Wage Bill That Arrived After Payday" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><figcaption>Source: <a href="https://startbusinessbystate.com/unpaid-wages-by-industry/">StartBusinessByState.com</a></figcaption></figure>