by James Parks, Nov 17, 2008

The Bush Labor Department is not enforcing the laws that protect workers from wage theft—workers not being paid what they earn or are due, says Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). Immediate and major reforms are needed to ensure that in these hard economic times every worker receives each dollar to which he or she is entitled.

In her new book, Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid—And What We Can Do About It, Bobo says wage theft is “an epidemic” in the nation, especially in the low-wage labor market. Click here to order a copy of the book. 

Wage theft is a national crisis. As many as two or three million workers are not being paid minimum wage, millions are denied overtime pay.

The industries in which workers most often report wage theft are agriculture, poultry processing, janitorial services, restaurant work, garment manufacturing, long-term care, home health care and retail, she says. Last year alone, nine worker centers affiliated with IWJ recovered $1,249,052 in wages for workers.

It’s a myth that only undocumented immigrant workers are being denied their pay, Bobo says:

I’ve talked to restaurant workers who told me about having their tips taken [by the employer] and certified nursing assistants who stay over their shifts to make sure they brief their replacements on the patients’ conditions, but don’t get paid for the overtime. It’s not just immigrant workers, it’s everywhere.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which is supposed to enforce the wage and hour laws is ill-equipped to do the job, Bobo says. She told the House Education and Labor Committee in July (see video):

If the question is whether the Wage and Hour Division is doing important work, the answer is “yes.” If the question is if the Department of Labor is effectively enforcing the wage and hour laws, the answer must be a resounding “no.”

There are several ways to solve the problem, Bobo says, but the first priority has to be getting more wage and hour investigators.

There are 750 wage and hour investigators for 130 million workers. It’s just not enough. They can’t possibly do the job. I’m advocating that they need to quadruple that staff. People talk about how can you support quadrupling a staff in this economic environment. My response is if we make it a priority, we can make it happen. After 911, we hired 52,000 people to go through my suitcase and pull out my toothpaste.  It was a priority and we made it happen. We can’t talk about any thing else about solving wage theft without getting more enforcement staff.

But that’s not enough, she says. Workers need the Labor Department to be proactive, checking on workplaces and not just waiting for complaints to come in. Right now most investigations consist of a phone call to the employer, she says. The investigators need to be out in the workplace talking to workers and finding out firsthand if they are being paid what they are due. And when employers are caught keeping back wages, they should be punished severely. Bobo says:

Compared to the other problems we face in our economy, wage theft can be fixed easily. We need a couple of years of targeted effort and enforcement and we can solve this.

The AFL-CIO will host a brown-bag book discussion and signing Nov. 25 from noon to 1 p.m. at the federation’s Washington, D.C., headquarters at 815 16th St., N.W. To attend, please click here to RSVP.

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