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Lawmakers blasted Department of Labor officials this week for weak enforcement of wage and hour laws in the wake of two reports citing mismanagement of worker claims.

But Labor Department officials say back-wage recovery is at an all time high despite a 20 percent drop in staffing in the division over the last seven years.

Two separate reports from the Government Accountability Office unveiled during a July 15 House Education and Labor Committee hearing criticized the Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Department, saying it failed to adequately investigate claims of wage and hour law violations.

The reports state that the agency has instituted fewer enforcement actions in recent years – from 47,000 in 1997 to 30,000 in 2007.

The reports also found that many of those actions were delayed. In the case of several hundred claims, investigators were not assigned until more than a year after an initial claim was filed.

Click here to read the reports.

Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., blasted the Labor Department over the report.

"Although the Department of Labor has the necessary tools to fight wage theft, the GAO investigation suggests that the problem of wage theft is only getting worse because of weaker enforcement," said Miller. "In too many cases, the Wage and Hour Division has simply dropped the ball in pursuing employers that cheat its workers out of their hard earned wages."

In his testimony before the committee, Alexander J. Passantino, acting administrator of the department's Wage and Hour Division, said that the division has recovered more than $1.25 billion in back wages for workers, adding that in fiscal 2007 alone a record-setting $220 million was collected.

He said that while the agency has targeted its low-wage enforcement efforts in the garment manufacturing, long-term health care and agriculture industries, compliance problems persist elsewhere.

The Wage and House Division "has seen compliance problems grow in other low-wage industries even while the agency's resources were focused on the three national priorities," he testified.

He said that the division is now expanding its focus to include industries like hotel services, construction and day care.