Maureen Adarve/STAR MAX/IPx
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seen at a press conference announcing a settlement in which delivery employees will be compensated through a $16.75 million settlement with DoorDash for taking worker pay between 2017 and 2019.
More Americans consume local news about crime than on any other topic except for the weather: Violent crime is ubiquitous on television newscasts; though property crime, a staple on social media sites like Nextdoor, is more prevalent. There’s one type of crime, however, that almost never makes the headlines: wage theft.
By refusing to pay overtime, paying below the minimum wage, or withholding wages outright, American employers deprive workers of their full wages. These practices also chip away at state and local tax revenues, and can force victims to rely on public programs like food stamps and Medicaid. While wage theft occurs throughout all industries and at all income levels, low-wage workers, some of the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized people, are disproportionately affected. Temporary workers and low-wage workers in construction, food service, health care, and retail—sectors dominated by workers of color—tend to experience the highest rates of wage theft.
Labor unions have long provided the most effective protections for fighting wage theft. Unionized workers are half as likely to fall victim to minimum-wage violations, and the collective bargaining power exerted by union members means that members are more likely to report workplace violations to enforcement agencies. Though support for unions remains high, public and private union membership continues to decline. And after the Trump administration’s gutting of federal agencies that assist employees, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, many more workers will be left without avenues for redress.
“People fear that if they file a complaint, their employer is just going to kick them out of the job altogether.”
A December Economic Policy Institute report found that between 2021 and 2023, federal, state, and local authorities clawed back some $1.5 billion for workers. These recovery efforts, however, are ultimately “a very small piece in the grand scheme of how much wage theft is occurring,” says Margaret Poydock, an EPI senior policy analyst. To further combat this common problem, some regional governments and municipalities are stepping into the void to assist workers, particularly non-unionized employees.
The Workplace Justice Fund confronts wage theft in San Diego County, California’s second most populous administrative area. In 2023, organizations such as the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a statewide group that targets illegal and unfair business practices in the janitorial industry, and the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI), a San Diego–based research institute, banded together with county leaders to establish the fund, one of the first of its kind in California.
Initiatives like the Workplace Justice Fund are examples of co-enforcement programs: Labor standards enforcement agencies partner with community-based organizations that have existing ties with low-wage workers. This allows agencies to build on the progress that community partners have already made, ultimately expanding their reach and allowing them to more effectively recover unpaid wages. Seattle, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia have put co-enforcement into practice, with Seattle alone providing over $1.5 million to fund worker organizations and community organizing projects.
Nearly 90 percent of the hourly workers interviewed for a 2024 CPI and San Diego State University survey were wage theft victims. The fund assists workers who’ve secured favorable judgments from the state labor commissioner’s office but have not received back pay from an employer, a problem that many workers encounter despite the order. These individuals can receive up to $3,000 in immediate relief. In its first months, the fund distributed roughly $100,000 to workers.
Along with offering financial assistance to employees, the Workplace Justice Fund also sends officials to mediate wage theft disputes between an employer and a worker. “Workers have this judgment in hand, but then employers don’t pay it. They just don’t do it,” says Kyra Greene, executive director of the CPI. “Then the county is able to further go after that employer and try to get the remainder of any money that is due.”
What makes it so difficult for non-union workers to get back stolen wages? One reason is mandatory arbitration: To resolve any potential disputes, most businesses require workers to address issues through a private arbitrator rather than through the courts. Unlike class action lawsuits, where employees can band together and file on a collective basis, the terms within these arbitration agreements are defined unilaterally by employers, making the process more difficult and costly for workers.
Nearly 60 percent of private-sector, non-union workers are subject to mandatory arbitration agreements. Since victories are few and far between, most workers do not typically attempt to win back stolen wages. By one estimate, 98 percent of low-wage, private-sector, nonunion workers subject to mandatory arbitration do not file a claim when their wages are stolen, in part because they may face threats of retaliation.
“One of the things employers do, especially when hiring undocumented workers, is hold legal status over their heads,” says Alfredo Carlos, professor of labor studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. “It becomes very hard [to file a claim] for folks who are scared, and that’s on purpose.” In the cases where workers win legal judgments, the back-pay process is long and arduous, with many employers failing to follow through with payments.
Employees who face threats can seek assistance from the fund. “People fear that if they file a complaint, their employer is just going to kick them out of the job altogether,” says Greene. “The Workplace Justice Fund is designed to try to encourage more people to address the issue of wage theft in real time.”
Greene points out that it’s important for public officials to establish ties with organizations that have already developed solid relationships with workers. “In our case, it’s organizations like the Employee Rights Center, the Pilipino Workers Center, as well as the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund,” says Greene. “These organizations are worker centers that have already been out in the field doing this, trying to help workers file claims dealing with wage theft and the disappointing and broken aspects of the system, and so they’ve been some of the most important people for helping advocate for it.”
California lawmakers are working on statewide anti–wage theft legislation. In early February, state Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) introduced a bill to strengthen wage theft enforcement. If passed, the legislation would require the state labor commissioner to post a public database of employers who haven’t paid judgments, while workers and public prosecutors would be awarded court costs and legal fees.
By giving vulnerable workers a voice in combating wage theft, communities and enforcement agencies put employers on notice that these abuses will not be tolerated and can limit practices that adversely affect workers and communities. Reclaiming stolen wages, then, makes economic sense not only for victims, but for governments and taxpayers as well.
