According to one estimate from the nonprofit think tank Economic Policy Institute, reported and unreported wage theft could amount to as much as $50 billion per year owed to workers.
If someone steals money from their employer, they could be guilty of a serious crime. But what if an employer takes money from their employee's paychecks?Whether it's paying less than minimum wage, withholding tips or pressuring staff to work off the clock, so-calledsiphons billions from Americans' paychecks.
With the assistance of Arise Chicago — a local nonprofit that helps wage theft victims — Espinosa filed a lawsuit in late 2022 to recover some of the money he says he's owed.In response to their suit, Espinosa's employer, Naty's Pizza, filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming in part that he and other employees were independent contractors who also drove for gig delivery services such as Uber Eats.
An attorney for the owner of Naty's declined to comment other than to refer to the motion to dismiss. All forms of wage theft are against Illinois law — and the laws of nearly every other state, along with the federal government. Yet many employers still commit wage theft, often because they face few consequences when they get caught, according to Uribe.
Even when wage theft is reported, employers often manage to avoid paying back the wages they owe, according to the data obtained by CBS News. In his most recent claim, Torres said his employer — a small remodeling company — didn't pay him for 10 full days of work. With the help of a local legal aid organization, Arroyo filed a complaint with the state labor commission in 2019. She says she's still waiting for a resolution.The same year Arroyo filed her complaint, Antonio Dominguez-Alcala's own wage theft case was just wrapping up — or so he thought.
Delays like those can discourage victims from filing wage theft claims in the first place, according to Uribe. Many wage theft claimants were owed far more: in nearly 30,000 of the cases CBS News analyzed, state labor agencies found $10,000 or more was owed. "A core part of the county's responsibility is ensuring that restaurants operate in a safe and lawful way," said Greta Hansen, the county's chief operating officer. "Other food service providers operate in a safe and lawful way, and so we leverage that authority to ensure those businesses are also complying with any wage judgments against them."
"We've been very fortunate because we've had a 100% success rate so far in actually getting businesses we've reached out to comply without taking that step [of revoking licenses]," Hansen said. "And that can mean immediately paying a judgment that they had not paid previously]." While he acknowledged the system there could be improved, Serna said he thinks his agency has the tools it needs, adding that his focus "is to try and help Texans – Texans who are individuals or Texans who are businesses."Other local governments have their own ways of addressing wage theft, as do most states. The federal government also has its own wage theft claims process.
Rusicka said Arise Chicago has led more than 250 campaigns involving wage theft and other workplace issues such as sexual harassment and health and safety violations. 78 of those cases involved lawsuits, Rusicka said. "Aside from non-payment, [my boss] intimidated us, calling immigration, wanting us to be sent back to Guatemala," Perez Gonzalez told CBS News Miami reporter Joan Murray.
"[Wage theft victims] are afraid to come forward because they might think that they don't have any other opportunities," Walsh said. "But that is theft, that is stealing, that is a crime."In California, the state Labor Commissioner's office referred 13 wage theft-related cases for criminal prosecutions, according to a report by the nonprofit news organization CalMatters, who partnered with CBS Sacramento to publish a local wage theft investigation in late 2022.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Labor said the agency has never used that power because most companies willingly resolve their cases to avoid the risk of fines or prosecution. "A lot of the times the [prosecutors] aren't inclined to want to do that because it's not a big enough deal for them," Serna said.
In contrast, any theft of property worth more than just $500 in the state is a felony with a sentence of up to five years. "This has been one of my major focuses with Congress: to staff up," Walsh said. "Because if you get shortchanged dollars, Democrat or Republican — it doesn't matter who you are. And really, we should be doing more as far as trying to reclaim this [money]."
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