By Amy Traub and Amanda Van Hoose Garofalo ( July 26, 2017, 11:16 AM EDT) -- Given the exponential uptick in wage and hour lawsuits during the Obama administration and the continuing aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws by the U.S. Department of Labor, many employers have felt the risk of a potential lawsuit looming over their heads for pay violations they may not even know exist. Before 2010, opinion letters prepared and made publicly available by the DOL were invaluable to employers seeking clarification of a wage and hour rule or regulation. Oftentimes these opinion letters were the only guidance available to a company desperately attempting not to run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act and its myriad complex regulations. However, in 2010, after 70 years, the practice was stopped in favor of administrator interpretations, but the frequency with which those have been issued the past seven years is glacial in comparison to the prior opinion letters. In addition, administrator interpretations tend to be more general in nature, while opinion letters had historically been more comprehensive and nuanced....