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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/06/04/151119/new-economy-fallout-wage-theft.html
Nearly two out of three low-wage workers experienced some form of wage theft each week, according to a 2009 survey of nearly 4,400 low-wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Three out of four reported underpayment or non-payment of wages, and one in four said they were paid subminimum wages. On average, these workers lost about $51 a week in unpaid earnings, the survey found.
The lost wages add up. Workers in Houston lose more than $753 million a year, according to a recent study there. While the cities aim to write new protections into law, existing laws often go unenforced.
The U.S. Department of Labor, which monitors compliance with federal wage laws on behalf of more than 130 million workers, has only 1,000 enforcement agents. That’s about one for every 141,000 workers, compared with one per 11,000 workers in 1941.
State wage-and-hour investigators are equally scarce in the wake of massive budget cuts, a 2010 survey found. In 43 states and the District of Columbia, a total of 660 state investigators were covering nearly 90 million workers, about one per 146,000 employees.
That enforcement vacuum also has caused state lawmakers to weigh in, enacting new laws in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico and Washington
Last year, Texas lawmakers closed a loophole that let employers escape prosecution if they pay workers only a portion of the wages they’re owed. And in January, California’s Wage Theft Prevention Act took effect, requiring that new hires get written notice of pay rates and how their pay is determined. The new law also increased penalties for nonpayment.
Business groups have typically opposed wage-theft laws as a regulatory burden. Earlier this year, the New York State Senate voted to eliminate a part of the state’s 2011 wage-theft law that requires employers to provide annual pay notices to workers – information typically found on their pay stubs.
Cynthia Hernandez, a research associate at Florida International University who specializes in workers rights, said she’s interviewed employers who simply didn’t know they were violating wage laws, while others use wage theft as a business model to get an unfair advantage on their competition.
“I have talked to employers in Florida who, quite honestly, because of the recession they’re facing, are unable to pay their employees on time or had to short their employees because they didn’t have the means,” Hernandez said. “So I would imagine that’s the case on the national level.”
In Miami-Dade County, an ordinance allows workers to file a complaint with the county over unpaid wages. If the case can’t be settled through mediation, a hearing examiner can decide the matter and impose fines. The law already has helped workers recover more than $1 million in earnings. Several Florida counties are now looking at similar measures. But the Florida Retail Federation is pushing back, and the state legislature is considering repealing the Miami-Dade measure.
Nearly two out of three low-wage workers experienced some form of wage theft each week, according to a 2009 survey of nearly 4,400 low-wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Three out of four reported underpayment or non-payment of wages, and one in four said they were paid subminimum wages. On average, these workers lost about $51 a week in unpaid earnings, the survey found.
The lost wages add up. Workers in Houston lose more than $753 million a year, according to a recent study there. While the cities aim to write new protections into law, existing laws often go unenforced.
The U.S. Department of Labor, which monitors compliance with federal wage laws on behalf of more than 130 million workers, has only 1,000 enforcement agents. That’s about one for every 141,000 workers, compared with one per 11,000 workers in 1941.
State wage-and-hour investigators are equally scarce in the wake of massive budget cuts, a 2010 survey found. In 43 states and the District of Columbia, a total of 660 state investigators were covering nearly 90 million workers, about one per 146,000 employees.
That enforcement vacuum also has caused state lawmakers to weigh in, enacting new laws in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico and Washington
Last year, Texas lawmakers closed a loophole that let employers escape prosecution if they pay workers only a portion of the wages they’re owed. And in January, California’s Wage Theft Prevention Act took effect, requiring that new hires get written notice of pay rates and how their pay is determined. The new law also increased penalties for nonpayment.
Business groups have typically opposed wage-theft laws as a regulatory burden. Earlier this year, the New York State Senate voted to eliminate a part of the state’s 2011 wage-theft law that requires employers to provide annual pay notices to workers – information typically found on their pay stubs.
Cynthia Hernandez, a research associate at Florida International University who specializes in workers rights, said she’s interviewed employers who simply didn’t know they were violating wage laws, while others use wage theft as a business model to get an unfair advantage on their competition.
“I have talked to employers in Florida who, quite honestly, because of the recession they’re facing, are unable to pay their employees on time or had to short their employees because they didn’t have the means,” Hernandez said. “So I would imagine that’s the case on the national level.”
In Miami-Dade County, an ordinance allows workers to file a complaint with the county over unpaid wages. If the case can’t be settled through mediation, a hearing examiner can decide the matter and impose fines. The law already has helped workers recover more than $1 million in earnings. Several Florida counties are now looking at similar measures. But the Florida Retail Federation is pushing back, and the state legislature is considering repealing the Miami-Dade measure.
