How to spot wage theft in your workplace

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , some news you can use. How to spot if your employer is stealing from you. Wage theft takes billions from workers pockets each year. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. An estimated $15 billion are stolen from U.S. workers each year in the form of wage theft. Now , the San Diego County District Attorney's Office is cracking down on the crime thanks to a state grant. But a big part of cracking down is employees being able to recognize it and then knowing what to do about it. KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen has been working on a series all about wage theft , and he joins us now to share the details. Andrew , welcome.

S2: Hi , Jade.

S1: Thank you. Glad to have you here today. So I want to start with defining the problem here.

S3: And so that can come in a lot of different forms. It could be an entire paycheck that's missing. It could be a paycheck that's been delayed significantly. That can be wage theft as well. It could be paying someone below the minimum wage , which in California is $16 an hour. In the city of San Diego , it's 1685 , a little bit higher than the state minimum wage. So , you know , if somebody's working part of their job in El Cajon and then part of their job in the city , they should be earning two different rates depending on where they're working. There are also industry specific minimum wages. We just got a new minimum wage for the fast food industry. That's $20 an hour. So anybody earning less than that is essentially being stolen from withholding overtime. Pay is also a really common violation of wage laws , and it's important for people to understand when their job entitles them to overpay and whether they may or may not be exempt from those laws. So a good rule of thumb is you need to be making at least $66,560 in one year from one employer in order to be ineligible for overtime pay. So if you're making anything less than that , you should be earning overtime pay for any work above eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week. And that is again a 1.5 times your regular rate of pay. I spoke with Kiera Greene. She's the executive director of the Center on Policy Initiatives , and she said that withholding overtime is a really , really common violation.

S4: Sometimes when employees reach that eight hour mark , their employer just tells them you have to clock out now and work off the clock. And so that is actually two violations , because any work off the clock is illegal. And any time you're not paid overtime for additional hours. That's a different violation.

S3: And I'll just run through a couple other examples to kind of give an overview. So I'm working off the clock , which is a very common form of wage theft. Also withholding sick days or even failing to notify an employee of how much sick leave they have. Um , and then there are some less common examples that still happen , like unlawful deductions from their paychecks that weren't authorized by the employee. And , um , even if you show up to work and then your shift is canceled , there's some special premium pay that comes with that that somebody may be owed. And if that's not paid , then that's wage theft as well. Wow.

S1: Wow.

S3: You know , the best data that we have are really just snapshots , estimates , because a lot in fact , most wage theft goes unreported , either because the employee is unsure or unaware that it's actually happening to them. Maybe they don't know that they're entitled to overtime , and so they don't realize that they're not getting paid their full amount that they've earned. Or maybe they're afraid of retaliation and they don't want to report it because they they're afraid that they might get fired or disciplined in some way. The Center on Policy Initiatives , which is a local think tank , did a survey in a report that was released last month , and they surveyed 843 workers. Most of these workers were also students. So it was , you know , the sample was largely younger workers , and 87% said that they had experienced some form of wage theft in the past year , and 49% said that they had experienced it regularly. Um , as far as prosecutions go , there have been 14 felony wage theft prosecutions since 2021 by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. And , you know , because San Diego is so expensive , and also because we have so many low wage workers , especially in the hospitality and tourism industries. You know , even those small amounts that might be missing from someone's paycheck , $5 here , $10 there , spread out over time , of course , can add up. And even those small amounts can be the difference for someone who's living on the edge between being able to afford rent or pay their electricity bills.

S1: Well , I mean , tell me more about the DA's plan to investigate and prosecute this.

S3: It's a two year grant. They gave these grants to lots of DA's in the state. And San Diego actually got one of the largest. So that's going to be used to , uh , add a prosecutor , an investigator and a paralegal to basically form a team and take on additional wage theft cases , both civil prosecution. So in lawsuits and criminal prosecution for the most egregious cases , um , some of this money will go towards educating employers on their obligations under the law. California does have very complex labor laws. And so , you know , a boss could be committing wage theft without even them understanding it. Um , also , they just want to increase the capacity of the these enforcement agencies that are tasked with , you know , they take in reports from people and a lot of times they're spread very thin , and they can't give each case the attention that it may deserve. I spoke with San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan , and she says , particularly in these criminal cases , but really , every case victims need to document every instance of , uh , you know , working unpaid hours or missing a lunch break so that this crime can actually be proven in court.

S5: We'd love for employees to always keep a log , especially if they're hourly wage Workers , because we find that sometimes documentation is lacking and it is very , very helpful for us to be able to to protect them.

S1: That's good advice. Now , who generally is most impacted by wage theft ? Definitely.

S3: Younger workers are , uh , vulnerable to wage theft because they have less experience in the workforce. Typically , they're probably less familiar with the laws , and maybe they're even less empowered to stand up for themselves if they , you know , have experienced wage theft. Also , immigrant workers , we have , you know , a lot of , uh , immigrants in San Diego , especially undocumented immigrants , uh , they could , you know , perhaps fear deportation or some sort of retaliation if they report wage theft to the authorities. Um , also , English as a second language employees , um , people whose work is isolated. So janitors , for example , who who don't interact with a lot of their colleagues because they're going from place to place. You know , tidying up the offices and and everything. They can be vulnerable to wage theft. And it's important to note also wage theft can happen to middle and upper income workers as well. I put out a call on my Instagram for for stories of people who have experienced wage theft , and I was surprised by how many people who , you know , have college degrees , who work in fairly well-paid jobs , who have experienced their bosses taking from them , or , you know , missing a paycheck or something. And they , you know , those cases. I think often when people understand their rights and they know where to go to in order to assert those rights , they may have an easier time finding justice , but those lower paid and more marginalized workers can be really , you know , difficult to serve.

S1: This is KPBS Midday Edition. We're back after the break. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. We continue the conversation with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen about how to spot wage theft in the workplace. I asked him how a lack of information about sick time can equate to wage theft. Yeah.

S3: Yeah. So starting this year , uh , all employees in California are entitled to paid sick leave , and it has to be either five days or 40 hours of paid sick leave , whichever is higher. So to give an example , let's say your typical workday is six hours. You get those five days of of paid sick leave , which total 30 hours , and then an additional ten hours of time because 40 hours is more than 30. So. So you are always guaranteed at least 40 hours of paid sick leave , or five days if your if your days are ten hour days , you would get 50 hours of paid sick leave. And this is important for everyone to understand , because it's a fairly new law that a lot of people aren't aware is in effect. And another obligation that the employer has is they have to inform their employees of how much sick leave they have. So every time someone gets a paycheck , it should be indicated somewhere on the pay stub. You know , you have a 6 hours or 24 hours of paid sick leave at this point. It could also be in an online portal where people can check their benefits or their pay stubs. But failure to tell the employee that they are entitled to sick leave , and how much sick leave they have is unlawful.

S1:

S3: Uh , you know , if you miss a meal break , if you've worked more than five hours without , uh , getting a meal break , or if your boss even asks you to keep an eye on the cash register on the front counter during your break , that's not a break. And and if you miss a meal break , you're entitled to an extra hour of pay. So documentation good recordkeeping is going to be the best , uh , tool in the toolkit to be able to actually enforce your rights. Um , also , uh , it was It was mentioned by Kiera Green when I interviewed her. She recommends people talk to their coworkers. People can sometimes feel isolated , or maybe they think that they're the only ones who are experiencing this , and it's a lot easier to prove a criminal intent on the part of an employer. If multiple employees are making the same accusations and can testify to , you know , a particular workplace culture that that may be , you know , disenfranchising people from their rights under the law.

S1:

S3: Uh , traditionally or historically , the only option was the state labor commissioner. But , uh , we now have local offices that can also enforce wage theft cases. It's called the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement. There's one with the city of San Diego and the County of San Diego. In addition , the district attorney's office has what's called the workplace Justice unit. Uh , they have a hotline that you can call. It's multilingual. You can also email them. And if they're not the right office that to take on your case , they can refer you to to the right place to go to seek justice.

S1: A lot of great information there. Andrew. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Jade.

S3: Jade. Again.

S1: Again. I've been speaking with Andrew Bowen , Metro reporter for KPBS. You can catch up with Andrew's reporting on wage theft at PBS.org. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.