Tipped job violations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n
• Of the tipped workers in our sample, 30 percent were not paid the tipped worker minimum wage (which in Illinois and New York is lower than the regular state minimum wage).<\/li>\n
• In addition, 12 percent of tipped workers experienced tip stealing by their employer or supervisor, which is illegal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  What can we do to stop wage theft?<\/strong><\/p>\n

  According to the survey, when workers are victims of wage theft, their families experience more poverty and economic insecurity. Also, their local communities suffer from social instability and lower tax revenue. When unscrupulous employers violate the law, responsible employers are forced into unfair competition, setting off a race to the bottom that threatens to bring down standards throughout the labor market. And when significant numbers of workers are underpaid, tax revenues are lost.<\/p>\n

  The survey report suggests three principles that should drive the development of a new policy agenda to protect the rights of workers.<\/p>\n

  \n
  • Strengthen government enforcement of employment and labor laws: <\/strong>Public policy should leverage the resources and power that reside in agencies responsible for enforcing worker protections. This will require additional staffing, but more important, new strategies are needed to address the reality that workplace violations are becoming standard practice in many low- wage industries.<\/li>\n
  • Update legal standards for the 21st century labor market:<\/strong> Weak employment and labor laws open the door to low-road business strategies focused on illegally cutting labor costs. Raising the minimum wage, updating health and safety standards, ending exclusions that deny workers coverage, and strengthening the right of workers to organize through labor law reform\u2014all are key improvements that would raise compliance in the workplace and improve the competitive position of employers who play by the rules.<\/li>\n
  • Establish equal status for immigrants in the workplace:<\/strong> The best inoculation against workplace violations is ensuring that workers know their rights, have full status under the law to assert them, have access to sufficient legal resources, and do not fear retaliation. But for unauthorized immigrant workers today, this can be a near impossibility. Any policy initiative to reduce workplace violations must prioritize equal protection and equal status in national immigration reform, and ensure status-blind enforcement of employment and labor laws.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    According to a recent article in the New York Times<\/a><\/em>, the Obama administration is investigating pay practices throughout the health care industry<\/a>,\u00a0and as a result, hospitals around the country have paid millions of dollars in back wages to settle claims by the government and their employees. And many more hospitals are fighting class-action lawsuits that raise the same issues.<\/p>\n

    In St. Louis, the Labor Department has recovered more than $1.7 million in back wages for 4,000 employees of hospitals and clinics operated by SSM Health Care, a Roman Catholic system.<\/p>\n

    In Boston, the Partners HealthCare System agreed to pay 700 employees more than $2.7 million in overtime back wages to resolve a lawsuit by the department alleging violations of the\u00a0Fair Labor Standards Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    And under the proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit in California, Kaiser Permanente would pay $7.25 million to hundreds of\u00a0registered nurse<\/a> coordinators, case managers and other medical workers. The employees said they had been denied overtime pay because they were improperly classified as exempt. Kaiser denied wrongdoing but has agreed to the settlement.<\/p>\n

    photo: Progress Illinois<\/em><\/p>\n

    video: Interfaith Worker Justice<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Many businesses are increasing their bottom line by not paying their workers\u00a0all of their legally earned wages. They are stealing wages from lower paid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,273],"tags":[785,2489],"yoast_head":"\n