Report: Wage Theft Reaches Deep into the Low-Wage Economy
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A new report shows how wage theft reaches deep into the low-wage economy.
“The Movement to End Wage Theft” illustrates the problem with the stories of workers employed by a grocery chain, a temp agency, a construction company and other incorporated businesses. These workers’ wages were stolen by their employers who failed to pay the minimum wage or overtime, or refused to abide by work-break and safety rules.
Findings from a 2009 study cited by the study’s author, Nik Theodore of the University of Illinois at Chicago, concluded that 26 percent of low-wage workers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles were paid less than the legal minimum wage, and 76 percent of workers who worked overtime were not paid the legally required overtime rate.
Here’s one account from the report (available here in PDF format):
For six years Modesta has worked as a cashier in a retail store in Brooklyn, New York. When she started at the job she was paid $5 an hour. She worked 60 hours, 6 days a week, but received no overtime pay. Last year she was given a “raise” and now earns $6.60 an hour—still well below the state minimum wage. Most of her co-workers are paid even less, but she says her employer has been able to continue this practice because the workers are too scared to complain.
Labor Dept. App Helps Workers Track Wages, Hours
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Want to make sure you’re getting paid what you’re due? Now there’s an app for that. The U.S. Labor Department announced last week its first application for smartphones: a time sheet to help employees independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed.
Available in English and Spanish, workers can use the application to conveniently track regular work hours, break time and any overtime hours for one or more employers. Contact information and materials about wage laws are easily accessible through links to the webpages of the department’s Wage and Hour Division.
Rather than relying on their employers’ records, workers now can keep their own. Workers also will be able to add comments on any information related to work hours and see a summary of work hours for the day, week or month and e-mail a summary of hours and pay as an attachment. This information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation when an employer has failed to maintain accurate employment records.
S.F. Activists Launch Anti-Wage Theft Campaign
San Francisco workers yesterday kicked off a new citywide campaign to combat wage theft and rallied to mobilize support for a proposed new anti-wage theft law.
Wage theft is a $30 billion a year problem nationally and in the Bay Area, workers in the restaurant, construction, caregiving, manufacturing industries are victims. Tiffany Crain, from the activist group Young Workers United (YWU), says:
It comes in the form of not being paid overtime, not receiving breaks, not being paid at all in some instances, and many other things that are unlawful, work off the clock, they’re told to clock out and told to do other duties and not paid for it.
In 2010, a report released by the Chinese Progressive Association revealed that 1 out of 2 workers in Chinatown restaurants are paid below the minimum wage. In 2010, the Progressive Workers Alliance helped Bay Area workers recover nearly $500,000 in stolen wages due to wage theft through legal claims, lawsuits, employer negotiations and community campaigns.
Guide Lists Worker-Friendly San Francisco Restaurants
Young Workers United (YWU) members issued their second annual edition of “Dining With Justice,” which highlights food establishments that follow labor laws and treat their employees with dignity and respect.
The San Francisco-based group released the updated guide on May Day, as members participate in May Day marches in support of workers’ rights.
Because of the recession, restaurant owners and managers have a greater incentive to increase profits by cutting corners with food quality, health and safety and labor rights, YWU says.
As a result, most restaurant workers have been victims of wage theft. They may not receive overtime pay or breaks, or are forced to work off the clock. Workers have been increasingly apprehensive of speaking out about work grievances, fearing job loss and prolonged unemployment.
YWU presented awards to restaurant owners who care not only about the food they serve but also the people they employ. To determine the winners, YWU surveyed workers and employers in 35 restaurants in a variety of price ranges throughout San Francisco.
Check out the “Dining With Justice” guide here.
Wage Theft: The Crime Wave Nobody Talks About
Every day across the country, millions of workers in low-wage jobs are being robbed of billions of dollars they are owed by their employers. A new video by Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) shows how the practice of wage theft is a national epidemic no one is paying attention to.
IWJ says 60 percent of nursing home workers, 100 percent of poultry plant workers and 90 percent of restaurant workers are denied their fair pay at some time.
One such worker is Ryszard Abucewicz of Chicago, who says on the video his employer refused to pay him at all for three consecutive pay periods.
Dianne Enriquez, also in the video, is one of three San Francisco restaurant workers who did not receive overtime pay and sued their employer. They won more than $7,000 in back pay.
New York State Protects Workers Against Wage Theft
Workers in New York State soon will be protected against wage theft by a new law. The State Assembly yesterday passed the Wage Theft Prevention Act, which will increase penalties significantly and improve enforcement of state laws on wage theft. The State Senate passed the bill in June and Gov. David Paterson (D) has vowed to sign it into law.
Wage theft is a national epidemic that robs millions of workers of billions of dollars they’ve worked for but never see, says Kim Bobo, author of Wage Theft in Americae and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), which coordinated the National Day of Action Against Wage Theft last month.
Today: National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft
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At a time when Congress is considering whether to give the nation’s wealthiest people a holiday gift by extending their Bush-era tax breaks, workers, religious leaders, public officials and others will come together in more than 35 cities across the country to fight for those who have been cheated and left behind.
A week before Thanksgiving, we’re taking part in a National Day of Action Against Wage Theft to highlight this ongoing crisis and ways that workers and communities are organizing to stop it.
Wage theft is a national epidemic that robs millions of workers of billions of dollars they’ve worked for but never see, says Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), the coordinator of the National Day of Action. Speaking at a telephone press conference yesterday, Bobo, author of Wage Theft in America, put it this way:
A week before Thanksgiving, faith communities collect turkeys to give to poor families. Millions of poor families could buy their own turkeys if their wages had been paid as required by law. This Thanksgiving, as a nation we are struggling with how to boost the economy. What better way to stimulate the economy, put more money back into neighborhood businesses, than to assure that workers are paid all their wages?
In Illinois, Wage Thieves Will Pay
Illinois employers who shortchange or don’t pay their employees will face felony charges for repeat offenses and, in all cases, will be forced to pay back wages plus interest and fines under a new law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn (D) last week.
The new law, which experts say is the toughest anti-wage theft law in the country, goes into effect Jan. 1, 2011. It also gives workers more rights to ensure they are paid what they earn.
Chris Williams, executive director of the Working Hands Legal Clinic in Chicago, which led the effort to pass the law, told the Associated Press the law particularly benefits those who are most vulnerable: low-wage, temporary and immigrant workers. Low-wage workers are often paid in cash, making record-keeping difficult, and some undocumented workers fear retaliation if they speak up.
Join National Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice
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Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) has launched a three-part campaign to fight Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law, known as S.B. 1070. During the weekend of July 29–Aug. 1—the time the law is supposed to take effect—IWJ is asking workers and other people of faith to join in a national Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice.
Whether through prayer vigils or other actions, people of faith and conscience must make it clear that the way we treat immigrant workers is a moral question, not just a political or economic issue, says IWJ Executive Director Kim Bobo.
Welcoming the immigrant is a clear message in our religious texts. Welcoming is not a theoretical matter. It is practical and day to day. Welcoming demands opposition to Arizona’s approach and fighting for comprehensive immigration reform.
Fair Wage Program Ignites Fox News Hysteria
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It seems like Fox News, always on the ball, just discovered the “We Can Help” outreach initiative the Labor Department launched in early April to inform workers about their pay rights and put a stop to wage theft. Faux News is now ranting against the department’s efforts to enforce the nation’s wage and hour laws.
We Can Help is a multilingual campaign aimed at low-wage and vulnerable workers with a special focus on reaching employees in such industries as construction, janitorial work, hotel/motel services, food services and home health care. It also will address such topics as rights in the workplace and how to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division to recover wages owed.
