Washington Policy Watch

The Movement to End Wage Theft (click to download full report)

What would you do if your employer didn’t pay you for your time on the job? Or failed to compensate you for overtime? Or paid you less than the minimum wage?

These types of wage violations actually aren’t that uncommon. Casa Latina, a Seattle non-profit that has been battling wage theft for over ten years, reported that they receive nearly 250 calls per year from workers complaining of wage theft. And a 2008 survey of low-wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City found that more than a quarter of low-wage workers are paid less than minimum wage and more than three quarters are not paid for overtime work.

Employers have been able to get away with these practices because many low-wage workers are afraid of losing work and the little income they do receive. Some workers are undocumented immigrants who are fearful of deportation if they refuse to withstand theft by employers.

Here in Washington state, Governor Gregoire signed a 2010 bill establishing better administration of wage complaints and violations. And the Seattle City Council took that legislation a step further by passing a city ordinance that expands the definition of wage theft and increases penalties for employers found guilty of it.

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Filed under: minimum wage, legislation, low-wage workers, ordinance, Seattle, Seattle City Council, wage theft, washington legislature, washington state, worker's rights, workplace standards