On December 13, Governor Paterson signed into law the historic Wage Theft Prevention Act (WTPA), landmark legislation that will significantly increase penalties and improve enforcement of the New York State laws protecting workers from wage theft.
Sadly, Wage Theft is rampant in New York – in NYC alone, unscrupulous employers steal more than $18.4 million a week, almost $1 billion each year, from their workers by cheating them out of the minimum wages and overtime benefits they are due. Penalties for this all-too-common practice have been so low that there is a perverse incentive to steal your workers’ wages – it costs less, even if you eventually get caught, than paying people what is required by law. Law-abiding businesses are put at a disadvantage when their competitors are reducing costs by stealing workers’ pay.
The Wage Theft Prevention Act will change that by increasing penalties, increasing protection for workers who speak up, and adding tools that the Department of Labor and Courts can use to investigate cases and actually collect the money that workers are owed. Make the Road New York drafted the WTPA, and led a strong community-labor coalition to pass the bill. (Read more in the NY Times, NY Daily News, Village Voice, and see below for list of key allies who helped make this victory a reality.)
Workers, like MRNY member Luis Olivo, who worked at the Fine Fare supermarket in the Bronx for more than seven years as a bagger – for more than thirteen hours a day, six days a week for pocket change and tips – will now have the law behind them when they stand up for their dignity and demand that their employers follow the law. Read more about Luis’ story in the Daily News.