D. Michael Hancock, of counsel in Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice, is the former Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division. As a senior DOL employee for 20 years, conducting policy-related work, including policy interpretation and enforcement, he helped enforce a wide range of workplace protections, from minimum wage, overtime, child labor and the Family Medical Leave Act, to guest worker and other employment-based immigration programs.
Most recently, as Acting Director, DOL’s Division of Interpretation and Regulatory Analysis, and as Assistant Administrator for Policy, Michael managed a team of 40 senior managers and analysts and worked with, among others, the Solicitor of Labor, the Secretary of Labor, the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House.
At the DOL, Michael also served as Branch Chief, Wage and Hour Division, Division of Interpretations and Regulatory Analysis, and as National Farm Labor Coordinator, Wage and Hour Division. While on detail from the DOL, he served as Senior Labor Advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where he provided guidance to the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, Office of Democracy and Governance, on a broad range of labor, civil society, democracy and development programs funded and administrated by USAID.
Prior to joining the DOL in 1995, Michael was the executive director of Farmworker Justice, where he helped provide policy support to farmworker organizations, labor unions, migrant legal services programs, administrative and legislative bodies, and other organizations. Before that, he was general counsel of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns and president of the Foundation for Handgun Education. He also served as executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project.
Michael was awarded a fellowship from Howard University — the Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship, Ozark Legal Services, Fayetteville, Arkansas — to practice poverty law in rural Arkansas, and was a law clerk at Ozark Legal Services. He also worked as an administrator and social worker with the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
- Acting Director, Division of Interpretation and Regulatory Analysis and Assistant Administrator for Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
- Interpretations Branch Chief, U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Division of Interpretations and Regulatory Analysis
- Senior Labor Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development
- National Farm Labor Coordinator, U.S. Department Of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
- Executive Director, Farmworker Justice
- General Counsel, National Coalition to Ban Handguns
- President, Foundation for Handgun Education
- Executive Director, Aviation Consumer Action Project
- District of Columbia
- Oklahoma State University, B.S.
- University of Arkansas, J.D., Honors
- Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship, Ozark Legal Services, Fayetteville, Arkansas
Current Cases
Salvation Army ARC Unpaid Wages Litigation
Salvation Army ARC Unpaid Wages Litigation: Cohen Milstein represents participants in Salvation Army's adult rehabilitation centers (ARC), who perform labor in support of the organization as a condition of their enrollment, in three lawsuits alleging that The Salvation Army violated federal and state laws when it failed to pay minimum wage to ARC workers.
Past Cases
Lopez, et al. v. Ham Farms, LLC, et al.
Lopez, et al. v. Ham Farms, LLC, et al. (E.D.N.C.): Cohen Milstein represented hundreds of migrant seasonal and H-2A farm labor workers in a wage and hour dispute under the FLSA, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), and the North Carolina Wage & Hour Act. On May 14, 2021, the Court granted final approval of a class action settlement with a total value of $1 million. At the final approval hearing on May 14, Judge James C. Dever III commended plaintiffs’ counsel for the "excellent [settlement] papers."
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Civil Rights & Plaintiff Employment Lawyers (2022-2024)
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers (2018-2020)
January 31, 2024
11th Circ. Offers Rare Look At Definition Of Live-In Nanny
An 11th Circuit opinion ruling that a nanny was entitled to overtime pay offers a rare deep dive into the contours of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s live-in domestic worker overtime exemption and shows the challenges of enforcing wage protections for household workers, attorneys say. Under the FLSA, a worker “who is employed in domestic […]
In the News | Law360
July 28, 2023
4 Changes W&H Attorneys Want In A New OT Rule
The U.S. Department of Labor has crafted an update to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime exemption, but before the public gets a look, Law360 asked wage and hour practitioners what they would like to see — from a higher salary threshold to reforms related to remote work. After repeated delays, the proposed rule to […]
In the News | Law360
May 17, 2023
Four Aspects of FLSA in Need of Modern Makeover
The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act continues to be a bulwark against worker exploitation, but several pillars of the statute and its regulations — from subminimum wages to collective action certification — need refreshing to meet today’s workforce, attorneys said. Employment law practitioners often bemoan how the FLSA does not jibe well with the contemporary […]
In the News | Law360
March 14, 2023
Salvation Army Must Face Rehab Program Participants’ Wage Suit
Workers sufficiently alleged they were employees Challenge to willfulness allegations also fails The Salvation Army lost its bid to throw out allegations it owes vulnerable people who live and work in its adult rehabilitation centers minimum and overtime wages. The workers—who say they receive $7 to $25 per week in cash, along with room and […]
In the News | Bloomberg Law
January 26, 2023
Bible Study and Work Without Pay: the Shadowy World of Sober Living Homes
In a largely unregulated industry, some residents trying to get sober are made to work 40 hours a week at restaurants – but don’t receive a paycheck. Michael Hancock, of counsel at Cohen Milstein and the former Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, offered his thoughts. First published by the Montana […]
In the News | The Guardian
January 19, 2023
DOL Wage Division Hits 2 Years Without Confirmed Leader
As President Joe Biden begins his third year in office on Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division remains without a Senate-confirmed leader, despite the president’s having put forward two nominees for the role. Though the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division has operated effectively without a Senate-confirmed leader under Biden, a confirmed […]
In the News | Law360
March 9, 2022
Drug and Alcohol Rehab Programs Promise Recovery Through Work – but Deliver Slave Labor
Cohen Milstein Has a Filed Lawsuit Against The Salvation Army ARC for Unpaid Wages. CLICK HERE to Learn Who is Eligible to Join. December 9, 2020 By not paying recovering addicts for their work, residential programs don’t provide the most effective approach to healing patients. Plus, it’s illegal. By D. Michael Hancock, former assistant administrator for […]
Articles | NBC Think
November 11, 2021
In a Warning Shot to Other States, Federal Judge Rules Immigrant Detainees in Washington Must Be Paid More Than $1 a Day
For years, thousands of detainees awaiting their trials in immigration court were paid $1 a day to mop, scrub toilets, do laundry, and myriad other jobs at the Washington state facility where they were being held. During that time, GEO Group, the company contracted with the government to run the facility, Northwest ICE Processing Center, […]
In the News | TIME
July 17, 2021
How a Charlotte Rehab Center Is Bypassing Labor Laws in the Name of ‘Work Therapy
For six months, Prince Foster III woke up at 6 a.m. every day and hung clothes at a red-bricked Salvation Army warehouse in Charlotte, N.C. He spent 40 hours a week working — but instead of receiving the North Carolina minimum wage, he earned a tiny weekly stipend worth far less. The rest of Foster’s […]
In the News | Media Hub
July 16, 2021
Prison Pay: Why Closing the ‘Slavery Loophole’ Isn’t Enough
A new resolution in Congress seeks to abolish the 13th Amendment’s so-called slavery loophole allowing people convicted of a crime to work for little or no pay. But current litigation over carceral subminimum wages shows that eliminating the clause might not be enough to boost wage protections, experts say. Introduced by Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., […]
In the News | Law360
March 18, 2021
Biden Wage Chief Restores Staff Power to Police Employer Abuses
The Biden administration’s Labor Department is empowering career officials across the U.S. to deploy a range of enforcement tools when scouring businesses for wage violations, overturning a Trump-era policy that consolidated approval of such decisions under one politically appointed leader. Jessica Looman, the principal deputy administrator of DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, earlier this month […]
In the News | Bloomberg Law
July 29, 2020
H-2A Visa Program for Farmworkers Is Surging Under Trump — and So Are Labor Violations
The federal visa program for guest farmworkers, known as H-2A, has grown rapidly as the rural workforce has aged and as a crackdown against undocumented workers has intensified under President Donald Trump. Even as the White House has broadly restricted visas during the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has made exceptions for H-2A visas, deeming H-2A […]
In the News | NBC News
July 7, 2020
Review Finds Many Who Work During Rehab Aren’t Being Paid
Across the country, drug and alcohol recovery programs claiming to help the poor and the desperate are instead conscripting them into forms of indentured servitude, requiring them to work without pay or for pennies on the dollar, in exchange for their stay. Some work at rehab-run businesses, such as thrift stores or car washes. Others […]
In the News | Associated Press
June 26, 2020
Virus Link to ‘Double Damages’ Rollback Skewered by Obama Alums
When the Labor Department quietly rolled out a new policy this week to limit when companies will be on the hook for double penalties in wage settlements, it said the move stemmed from an executive order directing agencies to remove “barriers to economic prosperity as America strives to defeat the economic effects of Covid-19.” But […]
In the News | Bloomberg Law
January 16, 2020
Movie Theater Employees Take Aim at Overtime Pay Exemption
In 28 states, low-level exhibitor staffers are fighting to end long hours without extra pay. While a strong December film slate helped lead U.S. box office revenue to a projected $11.4 billion in 2019 (down 4 percent year-over-year), many lower-level employees at top theater chains in multiple states worked without overtime or holiday pay — […]
In the News | The Hollywood Reporter
November 26, 2018
Tipped Wage Policy Rollback Could Put Labor Dept. at Legal Risk
Agency reverted to prior position on wages for non-tipped work; Employers advised to proceed with caution. The Trump administration’s recent policy change on compensation for tipped workers when they wash dishes or clean tables will likely cause legal trouble again, some attorneys and former Labor Department staff say. The department reissued a 2009 opinion letter […]
In the News | Bloomberg Law
April 24, 2018
Q&A: America’s “Invisible” Child Labor Problem
Over the last four years, more than 200,000 unaccompanied minors have come to the United States. Most of them came from Central America, fleeing poverty and violence. Some of these unaccompanied teens have ended up in small towns across the Midwest. A Senate investigation in 2016 found that many of these minors were vulnerable to […]
In the News | Frontline
February 21, 2017
Opinion: Trump Supporters Counting on Labor-Friendly DOL Chief
President Donald Trump faces significant challenges wherever he looks, but he also has a real opportunity to help a group of Americans who proved critical to his victory and are now looking to him for leadership — the working men and women of this country. After years of being largely ignored by policymakers, working Americans […]
Articles | The Hill