...the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division is trying a new strategy: analyzing the prices retailers pay for clothing, and tracing those prices all the way down the supply chain. This method is helping investigators know which companies in the chain are most at fault...Rosalez's department brought on an expert to study the prices Ross paid YN for wholesale clothing. It also studied the amount YN paid its contractors, who then hired garment stitchers to do the work. The investigators wanted to see if those amounts were sufficient to pay the garment stitchers the minimum wage and overtime for the time it took to complete the work..."The answer is no, nowhere near that," said David Weil, the Wage and Hour Division's national administrator. He explained that the Ross chain was paying about half what it should to YN, and YN was paying about a third of what it should to its contractors...As a result, YN must now pay $212,000 in back wages to 270 employees of its subcontractors. It also must hire an independent, third-party monitor to make sure all of its domestic garment contractors follow overtime, minimum wage and record keeping rules.This new strategy has also become a tool that Weil hopes will bring retailers like Ross into the conversation about wages. Weil says the division has reached out to Ross executives to discuss the problem...In an emailed statement, a corporate spokesperson for Ross Stores said it requires suppliers to uphold ethical standards and that the reatailer already has a dialogue with the Department of Labor...