
At Ventura County’s monthly social justice fair, volunteer employment lawyers are kept busy talking to residents about wage theft. One attorney noted that despite all the GOP handwringing over street crime and demands for more street-level policing, wage theft by employers far outstrips other common forms of thievery

America’s corporations steal $50 billion a year from their workers. The GOP, who, despite their ludicrous claims to be the “party of workers,” protects these criminals with friendly legislation: reducing the power of unions, forced arbitration, redefinition of overtime eligibility and low fines for those caught. Trump’s Supreme Court piled on by making it harder for employees to bring collective action lawsuits to redress wage theft. This combines to make wage theft standard operating procedure for America’s largest companies.
And it’s not just workers who suffer. Wage theft also robs federal and state treasuries of many billions of dollars in taxes, and puts employers who play by the rules at a serious competitive disadvantage.

Before we let our legislators go home for the year, demand that after they raise or eliminate the debt ceiling, they pass H.R.7701/S.474 – Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act so that Americans get paid a fair day’s wage for a day’s work. And instead of rewarding these grifting corporations with a tax cut (and the GOP legislators who serve them), demand that they start paying their fair share. (See original post on this here.)