What is Wage Theft?

Wage theft is the illegal practice of employers not paying workers for all of their work. This includes non-payment, partial payment, wages below the minimum wage, unpaid overtime hours or worker misclassification. Wage theft violates the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Virginia Payment of Wage Law.

Who is affected by wage theft?

Wage theft can occur at any job site, native and immigrant workers alike are vulnerable to wage theft. the impact of wage theft affects households, small businesses, and employers who pay workers fairly. A data finding conducted by the Economic Policy Institute found out the following:

  • In the 10 most populous states in the country, each year 2.4 million workers covered by state or federal minimum wage laws report being paid less than the applicable minimum wage in their state—approximately 17 percent of the eligible low-wage workforce.
  • The total underpayment of wages to these workers amounts to over $8 billion annually. If the findings for these states are representative of the rest of the country, they suggest that the total wages stolen from workers due to minimum wage violations exceed $15 billion each year.
  • Workers suffering minimum wage violations are underpaid an average of $64 per week, nearly one-quarter of their weekly earnings. This means that a victim who works year-round is losing, on average, $3,300 per year and receiving only $10,500 in annual wages.
  • Young workers, women, people of color, and immigrant workers are more likely than other workers to report being paid less than the minimum wage, but this is primarily because they are also more likely than other workers to be in low-wage jobs. In general, low-wage workers experience minimum wage violations at high rates across demographic categories. In fact, the majority of workers with reported wages below the minimum wage are over 25 and are native-born U.S. citizens, nearly half are white, more than a quarter have children, and just over half work full time.
  • In the 10 most populous states, workers are most likely to be paid less than the minimum wage in Florida (7.3 percent), Ohio (5.5 percent), and New York (5.0 percent). However, the severity of underpayment is the worst in Pennsylvania and Texas, where the average victim of a minimum wage violation is cheated out of over 30 percent of earned pay. For the full findings  click on this link

The poverty rate among workers paid less than the minimum wage in these 10 states is over 21 percent—three times the poverty rate for minimum-wage-eligible workers overall. Assuming no change in work hours, if these workers were paid the full wages to which they are entitled, less than 15 percent would be in poverty.

Goals

CIF seeks to bring an end to wage theft.

  • Build power and visibility with the #EndWageTheft Campaign a community-wide campaign that focuses on building power among worker leaders and promote solidarity with the laborer community. This campaign primarily aims to bring visibility to this crime through uplifting the voice and stories of the community.
  • Advocate for Systemic Change is part of our work. Wage Theft is illegal but it is often not enforced. Day laborers and many undocumented immigrants are more likely to be victims and less likely to report this crime.
  • Pursue individual cases of wage theft brought by workers, with the intention of recovering lost wages. Staff and volunteers: facilitate negotiations between workers and employers, assist workers in filing and pursuing cases in small claims court, help report incidents to local and federal labor agencies, and develop alternative methods to collect unpaid wages.
Secondary Goals:
  1. Build a coalition between the worker community, small business owners, local officials, and local authorities.
  2. Educate the community of the Centreville about the negative and far-reaching impacts of wage theft, through flyers, public forums, and workers’ rights workshops.
  3. Work with elected officials to advocate for the penalization of wage theft at the local level and to develop effective enforcement practices.

Submit a case here: 

Wage Theft - Robo de Salario

This form is used for victims of Wage Theft to reach out to CIF for assistance. Once received you will be contacted by staff to work through your case, please allow a minimum of 3 days for a response. Este formulario esta usado por victemas de robo de salario. Cuando lo recibimos un representate de la compania se va a comunicar con usted para empezar su caso. Por favor deja un minimo de 3 dias para responderles.
  • Use this space to detail your case. Once staff reaches out to you they will have a form and specific questions for you to fill out. Usa este espacio para detalles de su caso. Cuando un representante de la organizacion se comunica con usted les haria un formulario y preguntas especificas.