Widespread Wage Theft Threatens Working Families

It is a fundamental right to be paid when you work. But each year employers steal billions of dollars from millions of American workers through illegal practices known collectively as “wage theft.” In California, 9to5, National Association of Working Women, is doing something about wage theft. You can help!

Wage theft by employers takes many forms: non-payment of overtime, withholding a worker’s last paycheck, forcing workers to work off the clock, and sometimes not even paying minimum wages. Employers also steal wages and commit payroll fraud when they misclassify workers as contractors. These workers lose the protections that they are entitled to under the law. At the same time, the government loses needed tax income, leading to devastating cutbacks in vital services.

Wage theft puts ethical employers at a competitive disadvantage and can destroy community businesses. Working families cannot spend wages they have earned but never received.

Wage theft occurs in every income-tax bracket, in every industry, and in every state. But it is most prevalent among low-wage workers. In California, a 2010 study done by UCLA Labor Institute revealed that “low-wage workers in Los Angeles regularly experience violations of basic laws that mandate a minimum wage and overtime pay, and are frequently forced to work off the clock or during their breaks. Other violations documented in the survey include lack of required payroll documentation, being paid late, tip stealing, and employer retaliation.”

9to5 California’s Wage Theft Campaign advocates for stronger government enforcement of basic labor laws. In 2011 we helped win two important policies that are a big step towards this goal: the Wage Theft Prevention Act, and the Payroll Tax Fraud Prevention Act. But we still have a long way to go.

Now in Santa Clara County, 9to5 is calling for community support to end the misclassification of more than 400 county employees known as “dependent contractors”. These workers, many of them women in low-paying positions, have no job protection, no access to county benefits like health insurance, and no job security. Yet they work as employees, with no independent control of their worksite location, hours, or tasks. They deserve better!

We invite you to learn more about this campaign by attending 9to5’s Regional Conference in San Jose on March 17, 2012. A panel of local state legislators and candidates will hear and respond to worker testimony on wage theft. Please email cathyd [at] 9to5 [dot] org or call 408-432-6044 for registration information. Join 9to5 and be part of the solution.

Authored by Cathy Deppe, lead organizer,9to5 California.

Photo of Cathy Deppe

 Posted on January 24, 2012

Article posted by California Work and Family Coalition