>Over $203 million in wages were stolen by employers from nearly 127,000 workers in New York between 2017 and 2021, according to a [report](https://documentedny.com/2023/08/22/wage-theft-restaurants-new-york-nyc/) last year by Documented and ProPublica. Of that amount, more than $52 million was stolen from people working in restaurants – the most in any industry. Wage theft was also rampant in health care and construction, where employers stole $28.4 million and $27.6 million, respectively. Most of these workers [never received the money they were owed](https://documentedny.com/2023/08/21/nys-department-labor-wage-theft/). 
>
>New York lawmakers are now advancing proposals to hold more employers accountable. Last week, Senate Labor Chair Jessica Ramos (D) and Assembly members Kenny Burgos (D), Harvey Epstein (D), and Linda Rosenthal (D) introduced [three new bills](https://documentedny.com/2024/01/31/wage-theft-legislation-violation/) focused on aggressively deterring wage theft. The legislation takes a simple but powerful approach to curbing wage theft: violators would not be able to continue doing business in the state.
>
>…
>
>Federal regulators lack both the resources and the authority to effectively deter wage theft. Due to a declining number of investigators at the Department of Labor, the likelihood that an employer will be investigated for wage theft is [about 0.5%](https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol49/iss1/4/). In the unlikely event that an employer is found to have stolen wages, its actions are almost always treated as a civil offense, punishable by a penalty of just $2,374. For comparison, in Australia, employers can face fines of up to [$630,000](https://progressivereform.org/cpr-blog/protecting-workers-prosecuting-wage-theft-crime/) per violation.  [https://popular.info/p/getting-serious-about-wage-theft](https://popular.info/p/getting-serious-about-wage-theft)

Article also reports on state actions against wage-stealing businesses in CA, NJ and CO.

​

by 6SucksSex

2 comments

  2. The whole restaurant industry needs to serious “make over” to get rid of tipping all together. Tipping is why the industry is “most in any industry”. Construction and having so many “sub contractors” leaves that industry ripe for wage theft due to all the “cash jobs” (under the table, untaxed) in the industry.

Leave a Reply