Give The Data A Chance: Identifying And Interpreting Behavioral Patterns In Wage And Hour Disputes

Employers often worry that by increasing the amount of data they track about employees' activities, they also increase the risk that these same data may be used against them in wage and hour litigation. There is a statistical basis for this concern. Large data sets increase the chances that relationships measured within these datasets will register as statistically significant, even when those relationships are spurious. That is to say, should an employer decide to collect data metrics regarding its employees' activities with an increased frequency/accuracy or expand the scope and detail of the gathered data to include details previously not collected, the employer increases the chances that, in the event of a dispute, the experts analyzing the data will find a significant statistical relationship where none existed with the more limited data available before.¹ What employers may not realize, though, is that access to this more detailed data may be very beneficial in