By Kim Bobo
Kim Bobo is the founder and executive director of , which engages the religious community in issues affecting workers. She writes a column for , a new online magazine, and is co-author of . AFL-CIO Now senior writer James Parks interviewed Bobo about her new book, .
Question: What exactly is wage theft and how widespread is it?
Bobo: Whenever you are not paid for the work you do, that’s wage theft. If you work extra hours and don’t get paid overtime, that’s wage theft. If you work and don’t get paid what you were supposed to, that’s wage theft....I haven’t met anyone who thinks it’s all right to steal workers’ wages. Very few people understand that it’s not just an isolated incident here and there. It’s a national epidemic. I think when people realize that it’s a crisis, they’ll say, "Yeah we need to fix this."
Question: How can we fight wage theft?
Bobo: We need a strong union movement. We need a strong network of social services and grassroots organizations. And we need a strong Department of Labor that enforces labor laws. I have four chapters on how we can strengthen the Labor Department.
Q: What’s the role of unions in fighting wage theft?
Bobo: Unions by the very nature of what they do fight wage theft. If there’s a union in a workplace, they make sure workers get paid. But there are other things we can do. We need to talk about wage theft everywhere we go. I encourage union members who are in religious congregations to do a study on the issue. When we go into stores, we need to grab the workers on the side and ask them how they’re being treated. If there’s a worker center in your area, you should support it, because these centers are doing the work the Labor Department should be doing in these local communities. And when the new administration comes in, unions will be in a position to help set the agenda, and we should make wage theft a priority.
Question: How can we strengthen the Department of Labor?
Bobo: First, we need a secretary of labor who cares about wage theft and who can make it a priority. Second, we need community policing against wage theft. You can’t do it alone; you need the union community, the religious community and other groups to all work together to stop wage theft. Third, we need a Department of Labor that will be transparent and accountable to workers. For example, they could put settlement agreements up on the website like the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] does. They could track information in a public way about who steals wages like health departments do for restaurants that fail inspections.
Most important, we need more cops on the job. There are 750 investigators for 130 million workers in the country, and it’s just not enough. I believe we need to quadruple that staff. Now, some people ask how we can do that in this economic environment. But my response is that if we make it a priority, we can make it happen. After 9/11, we hired 52,000 people to go through my luggage and pull out my toothpaste. It was a priority, and we made it happen.
Finally, we need to have meaningful punishments. If you steal wages from workers, there needs to be consequences and you need to feel them. That’s especially true for repeat violators. Right now, only 40 percent of repeat violators even get fined at all. Even if back wages are paid, we’ve found it’s usually about 50 cents on the dollar. Employers are making out like bandits. If they steal wages, it’s a good business plan because in the end it costs them less.
Q: Is wage theft primarily a problem in industries with large numbers of undocumented workers. Are the two issues connected?
Bobo: The worst examples of wage theft are certainly done against undocumented workers, but the biggest dollar values are stolen from native-born workers. It is a mistake to think that wage theft only affects immigrants. For example, a certified nurses assistant, most of whom are native born, will work through her lunch hour and not get overtime, not get paid for it. And because of the way shifts cross, she’ll stay for an extra half hour to make sure the next CNA knows what’s going on. She’s just worked an extra hour and doesn’t get paid for it. That’s wage theft. You talk to any young person who’s worked in the restaurant industry, in recreation. They all talk about having tips stolen, working hours they’re not paid for or being clocked out long before they stop working. Wage theft is all around us.
Q: Will the new Obama administration make a difference in stopping wage theft?
Bobo: Absolutely. But the question is how much of a difference. We want them to make it a priority in the Labor Department. Even in previous Democratic administrations, we haven’t seen the amount of time and attention given to wage and hour that it needs to really stop wage theft. I know this won’t be the top priority with the financial crisis and the need to rescue the auto industry. But when you think about it, what better way is there to stimulate the economy than to make sure workers are paid? That’s going to go straight into our communities. It’s going to boost consumer spending. This is a very good way to invest in our communities.
The thing about wage theft, frankly, compared with many problems we have in this society, is that we can solve this. After a couple of years of a targeted effort, we could change this.
Once we get more staff, we can put investigators in the workplace. Right now, they’re handling cases on the phone from their offices. We need to be saying that in landscape, residential construction, meatpacking, poultry, janitorial services that nobody’s getting paid. We need to target these industries and send investigators out to find large numbers of workers whose wages are being stolen.
In preparing for the book, I read the annual reports of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division from 1941 on. And it’s striking that the one thing all the administrators said was that the best way to fight wage theft is by targeting industries. This is not rocket science.
