In California, one county is forcing restaurants to pay wage theft claims or risk losing their permits

Sep 7, 2023
Santa Clara County is helping regulators deal with businesses that cheat workers out of wages but fail to settle that debt.
Melissa Sanchez with the Fair Workplace Collaborative speaks with a restaurant manager. Sanchez is part of an outreach effort to inform small businesses about Santa Clara County’s food permit enforcement program.
Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED

How day laborers are feeling the effects of inflation

Many day laborers are having difficulties paying bills because of rising prices and fewer work opportunities.
Day laborers wait for offers of work outside the Don Bosco workers center in Port Chester, New York.
Mitchell Hartman/Marketplace

Texan advocacy group fighting to recoup unpaid wages

May 30, 2019
Wage theft disproportionally affects those with limit resources to fight back.
A janitor does some cleaning at the Columbia Mall on July 24, 2017 in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

Enforcing minimum wage is harder than you think

Feb 23, 2018
Victims of wage theft have few options, a Politico investigative reporter says.
Workers celebrate outside the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles on April 4, 2016, after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that will raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Domino's charged with wage theft in New York

May 24, 2016
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accuses Domino's of being a 'joint employer' with franchisees and responsibility for labor violations.
A Domino's Pizza in Miami, Florida, 2004.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Oil workers say their pay was stolen before the bust

Mar 8, 2016
New lawsuits claim companies didn't pay earned wages and overtime.
A truck used to carry sand for fracking is washed in a truck stop on February 4, 2015 in Odessa, Texas.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Millions are paid less than minimum wage, study says

Dec 4, 2014
Between 3.5 and 6.5 percent of workers are making less than they should.

For public good, not for profit.

Robbed on the job: Advice on fighting wage theft

Jan 4, 2013
Imagine working and not getting paid for it. It's more common than you might think. Wage theft happens when companies cheat workers out of earned income. Labor advocate Kim Bobo talks about the pervasiveness of this problem and how to fight it.