The Silent Robbery: How Wage Theft is Stealing Workers' Hard-Earned Money
Wage theft happens every day all over the United States, including in the state of California, which has explicit laws against it. Do you suspect your employer is stealing money from you by not paying you fully for time worked? Are you an independent contractor (1099 worker, aka freelancer) whose client paid you by check…that then bounced when you deposited it in your bank account?
Read on to learn all the different ways wage theft can happen and what you can do about it. You may wish to partner with an employment attorney to get money you are rightfully owed and to put a stop to your employer’s wage theft practices.
Wage theft is not paying an employee or independent contractor money they have earned through work. This includes regular wages, commissions, bonuses, tips, overtime pay, and even benefits.
Some common forms of wage theft include:
- Not paying you for all the hours you work
- Not compensating you for overtime hours worked
- Paying you late or with a check that fails to clear
- Refusing to pay your sick pay or other PTO
- Failing to pay commissions or bonuses as contracted
- Keeping some or all of your tips
- Making unauthorized deductions from your paycheck
- Refusing to compensate you for reimbursable expenses
- Failing to pay the legal minimum wage in California
This theft keeps workers like you from being able to meet their financial responsibilities, like paying rent or a mortgage, utility bills, insurance, food, and family expenses.
In some cases, the wage theft in question is not a huge amount of money lost on a daily basis, but it adds up over time. If you work full time, shorting you just $5.00 a day turns into $1,300 per year! What could you do with that money?
Greedy employers have multiple sneaky ways of engaging in wage theft. It’s not unusual to see these ways of cheating workers:
- Having you work off the clock, such as not paying you to show up early for work or for transportation time between job sites
- Making you stay late to finish work or perform other tasks while not paying you for the extra hours
- Making you clock out during what is supposed to be a paid lunch break
- Forcing you to record the wrong hours on your timesheet in order to make it look like you’re working less than you are
- Manipulating or falsifying time records to reduce the number of hours worked
- Changing commission or bonus rules in the middle of the time period for which they apply
- Not honoring work contracts that stipulate the payment of bonuses or commission
- Firing employees to get out of paying their final paycheck or bonus/commission payment
- Making you pay for items that should be paid for by the employer, such as electronics or mileage when you use your personal vehicle for work
The worst employers often intimidate employees in an attempt to keep them from speaking up about wage theft. They may threaten termination, blacklisting in your industry, or reporting your immigration status to the authorities. However, you should know that you can file a wage theft complaint in California regardless of your immigration status. You shouldn’t let your status scare you into not pursuing money that is owed to you.
If wage theft is rampant in the company, or if large amounts of money are at stake, an employer may resort to whistleblower retaliation against those who speak up. This includes the threats mentioned above, as well as menacing employees outside work or frightening their family members.
Yes! Wage theft is a crime, and it’s a major problem for workers in California. Multiple state agencies are involved in the investigation and prosecution of wage theft, including:
- County sheriff’s department
- University labor centers
- Los Angeles County District Attorney
- California Department of Industrial Relations
About a third of all workers in the state are paid less than the legal minimum wage. Wage theft adds up to millions of dollars every week in California and over a billion dollars each year.
California has taken steps to make wage theft a crime and to further codify egregious wage theft. As of last year, wage theft can actually be considered grand theft if during a 12-month period either of the following criteria is met:
- Wage theft is greater than $950 for a single employee
- Wage theft is greater than $2,350 for two or more employees
Wage theft in these incidents is defined by sections 200 and 350 of the California Labor Code.
Employers who are accused of wage theft can now be charged with a misdemeanor or, more seriously, a felony. This can mean a year in jail for a misdemeanor conviction or up to three years in jail for felony conviction.
Not only that, employers found guilty of wage theft are fined and must repay stolen wages. A property lien can be placed against workplaces that still refuse to pay.
You can certainly file a wage theft claim on your own in California via the Labor Commissioner’s office. They will investigate and, if necessary, join forces with other agencies to press charges against employers suspected of wage theft.
However, the state government frequently takes more than the allotted 135 days to investigate wage theft complaints. Manpower shortages, budget constraints, and residual effects of the coronavirus pandemic mean cases often take far longer than that.
Therefore, many workers who have been victims of wage theft elect to work with an employment lawyer. This lets them file civil charges against their employers (taking them to court), meaning their cases progress at a much faster pace. Sometimes just the idea of a lawsuit and a strong letter from an attorney is enough to get employers or clients to pay up.
If you do decide that pursuing criminal charges is right for your situation, an employment attorney can still help you file the complicated paperwork, making sure you’ve done it correctly and on time. There is a statute of limitations involved that imposes a deadline on filing wage theft complaints.
In many instances, there are other issues at stake than wage theft alone. You may also be dealing with wrongful termination, bad references, discrimination, or retaliation and be owed more than solely back wages. An experienced employment attorney, like Dave at Employee Law Group, can help you untangle your unique case so your rights are upheld and you have the best chance of getting everything you are owed.
It costs nothing to explore your case with Employee Law Group because your first consultation is free. You can see if you indeed have a case and what your options are moving forward.
Don’t let a greedy employer or client get away with wage theft when you have options. Call Employee Law Group if you’re in the Los Angeles area at 310-606-0065, or contact us online to let us know how we can help.
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