Wage theft (by employer) a scourge for low-income workers

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: SF Gate

It's part of a national scourge known as wage theft. More than two-thirds of low-wage workers reported some type of pay-related law violation, according to a 2009 report by the National Employment Law Project, which interviewed 4,387 front-line workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

The theft comes in many forms, including paying less than minimum wage, denying meal and bathroom breaks, and forcing employees to work long hours without overtime. In extreme situations, workers are locked into factories or businesses for 24-hour shifts, advocates said.

"It's a huge problem in the city of San Francisco, in the state of California and nationally," state Labor Commissioner Julie Su said. By some estimates, California drops $7 billion a year to wage theft in lost tax revenue and economic participation by low-wage workers, Su said
"Violations are happening at an increasing rate today in a climate of lax enforcement at the federal level and increasing boldness" by law-breaking employers, said Shaw San Liu, an organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association.


"Robbing employees ... doesn't just hurt working families," Herrera said. "It also hurts honest businesses and their employees by corrupting a competitive marketplace."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/18/MNGB1KAIB2.DTL&tsp=1

[Pooka Fey]

1. A fish rots from the head. Another example of trickle-down corruption.

[CarmanK]

2. My daughter had to pay the CCard swipe fee from her tips!

My daughter just had to quit her job as a waitress at a local restaurant. The employer was demanding that the waitstaff pay the credit card swipe fee out of her tips. Of course, that gives him cash for a tax write off. It is not only wage fraud, it is tax fraud.

[bighughdiehl]

3. My now ex-employer

Did this to us starting in fall 09. A new timeclock was installed that systematically
ripped us off. Management said they just wanted to clamp down on abuse of overtime on timesheets-
but it ended up doing more than that. I also crunched the numbers(with what I knew of fellow employees)
and found that overtime abuse was sooooo not a huge problem dollarwise. The top dawgs were raking in much more through their
six figure salaries than the place could have been bleeding through overtime abuse.
Trickle-down corruption indeed. Oh-they were born-again christians, too.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

4. Repugs want to do away with min wage laws altogether, and the 40-hour work week....

...and child labor laws. In other words, Republicans want a return to slavery.

These are all laws that were fought for and won by UNIONS. And they've been decimated in this country. So now, people (dumb asses who supported the Teapublicans) are going to have to learn all over again, WHY we had them in the first place - THE HARD WAY. Unfortunately, so do the rest of us who know better.

[KansDem]

5. This is why we need to cut taxes on the wealthy and increase corporate subsidies!

Yeah, I know, but just watch it spun this way...:shrug:

[closeupready]

6. because as Michelle Bachmann stated last year, this country is running out of rich people!

:crazy:

[thelordofhell]

7. When employers don't want to pay a reasonable wage

Are we really shocked that they want to screw their own workforce out of money