Wage Theft

It’s the core concept of employment, and it’s simple: go to work, put in the hours, and get paid the promised wage. But for legions of workers around the United States, this basic premise is violated routinely.

Millions of people around the country suffer “wage theft”: illegal underpayment or nonpayment of workers’ wages. Employers short workers’ pay, don’t pay overtime, force people to work off the clock, or omit a worker’s last paycheck. Industries where the problem is rampant include farming, food processing, restaurants, clothes manufacturing, long-term care and retail.

The Economic Policy Foundation—a pro-business think tank—estimated unpaid overtime alone at $19 billion each year. The problem’s scale is that much greater when considering all the wages stolen by employers that aren’t for overtime. As reported in “Wage Theft in America” (Kim Bobo, 2008), the incidence of wage theft is as high as 68 percent in some industries.

Sugar Law represents workers fighting for the money they have earned. The Center has recovered many thousands of dollars for workers whose meager earnings were stolen by their employers—from restaurant workers to truck drivers to landscapers to skilled construction trades workers.

Sugar Law also participates in the national campaign to strengthen the laws and enforcement regime punishing wage theft. Communities are developing new laws to explicitly criminalize wage theft. Miami-Dade County, Florida, recently passed an ordinance. San Francisco has a similar law on the books, and Los Angeles and New Orleans are considering them. The U.S. Department of Labor has also initiated action. Since the appointment of Secretary Hilda Solis, 250 new staff have been hired to enforce wage and child labor laws. This is a start, but the pervasiveness of the crime demands far more.

To fight effectively against wage theft, Sugar Law is proud to work with other nationally respected workers’ rights advocates. In partnership with the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), Sugar Law is supporting restaurant workers who are demanding the pay they have earned, as well as fair and safe working conditions. Sugar Law is also privileged to partner with Interfaith Worker Justice and theUniversity of Michigan-Dearborn in developing a research-advocacy project focusing on wage theft and other abuses of contingent or “temp” workers, with a particular focus on the experience of African-Americans.

We are hopeful that Sugar Law’s advocacy will help these workers not only get heard, but get justice—the pay they earned through hours and hours of hard work. And we will do all we can to ensure that continued public attention to the problem of wage theft leads to stronger laws, better enforcement and more empowered workers in every industry throughout the U.S.

Fair Employment Practices

We work to address the vulnerability of US workers to abusive, illegal working conditions. While Wal-Mart’s practices have been most highly publicized, the business and legal environment that favors its model has led to similar practices at many other employers.

Sugar Law works with Our Wal-Mart, an organization of employees at Wal-Mart nationwide who seek to improve working conditions at Wal-Mart. We assist workers who bring legal inquiries to Our Wal-Mart.

The Law Center assesses workers’ experiences for potentially actionable claims arising from violation of employment rights by Wal-Mart and other employers. Project objectives include:

a) providing direct legal representation where possible,

b) establishing mechanisms to connect employees with other attorneys as needed, and

c) disseminating information on the rights and abuses of workers to the workers themselves as well as the broader public and policymakers.

Mass Layoffs and WARN Act

Sugar Law uses litigation and public policy advocacy to protect workers in plant closings and mass layoffs.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to give their workers 60 days notice before a plant closing or mass layoff. Its purpose is to provide workers with time to seek alternative employment or retraining.

Direct representation of dislocated workers around the country by Sugar Law has led to the payment of millions of dollars to those whose employers attempted to avoid complying with the law.

Sugar Law is the recognized national expert on WARN Act prosecution, training, and education. In this capacity, we have testified before Congress in hearings to amend the WARN Act, brought lawsuits on behalf of several thousand workers and unions, obtained favorable rulings interpreting the law, written important amicus curiae briefs to federal courts and the United States Supreme Court, and received wide press coverage.

We also provide technical assistance to lawyers, publish information for attorneys litigating WARN Act cases, and maintain a WARN pleading bank to assist in these efforts.