Fighting Wage Theft From the Ground Up – American Prospect
“Localities and worker centers are joining forces to drive back employers who siphon off their employees’ hard-earned dollars.”
“What makes it so difficult for non-union workers to get back stolen wages? One reason is mandatory arbitration: To resolve any potential disputes, most businesses require workers to address issues through a private arbitrator rather than through the courts. Unlike class action lawsuits, where employees can band together and file on a collective basis, the terms within these arbitration agreements are defined unilaterally by employers, making the process more difficult and costly for workers.
“Nearly 60 percent of private-sector, non-union workers are subject to mandatory arbitration agreements. Since victories are few and far between, most workers do not typically attempt to win back stolen wages. By one estimate, 98 percent of low-wage, private-sector, nonunion workers subject to mandatory arbitration do not file a claim when their wages are stolen, in part because they may face threats of retaliation…
“California lawmakers are working on statewide anti–wage theft legislation. In early February, state Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) introduced a bill to strengthen wage theft enforcement. If passed, the legislation would require the state labor commissioner to post a public database of employers who haven’t paid judgments, while workers and public prosecutors would be awarded court costs and legal fees.”
Findings:
1) Wage theft was a rampant problem for the workers in our study. Of 843 hourly employees surveyed, 87% experienced wage theft during the previous 12 months. Moreover, about half regularly* experienced wage theft.
2) Minimum wage violations were widespread among survey participants who worked in the City of San Diego, where the minimum wage is higher than the state minimum. Over 30% of the hourly employees working in the city were paid less than the 2023 minimum of $16.30. Of the hourly employees working outside of the city, where the 2023 minimum wage was $15.50, almost one in ten were paid under this amount.
3) Sick day violations were common among survey participants. Of the more than 900 workers surveyed (both hourly and salaried), approximately a third either did not get any sick days or were retaliated against for taking them. In addition, over half of respondents did not know how many paid sick days they could earn at their job, and most of those did not know if they could earn them at all.