“I thought we were going to owe $30,000 in back overtime,” said one owner of a metro Denver design-build firm.

When the US Department of Labor auditor came back after interviewing several workers, he told the owner they could just estimate an average of 5 hours per week per person for back overtime pay owed to all employees. The owner’s response? “I ran the numbers and told him $30,000 would put us out of business.”