Imagine clocking in on your time card week after week with extra hours, you didn’t make it to your daughter’s soccer match or son’s cross country meet. You’ve sacrificed because the holidays are coming up and you’re behind on bills. Now, weeks later as you look at your paycheck you quickly realize thatyou’ve been shorted many hours of your hard-earned wages. If you don’t have a union representative or shop steward, what is your next move? How do you hold your boss accountable without jeopardizing your job? Too many workers, especially low-wage workers, face with this situation.
Wage theft, which is the failure to pay workers the wages owed to them, has become rampant and is of grave concern to the Wisconsin labor movement. Wage theft occurs when employers pay their works less than the minimum wage, don’t pay workers for overtime when it is required, force workers to work off the clock, short workers hours on pay day and or fail to pay an employee at all.
Make no mistake, wage theft is a crime.
Thankfully, Democratic lawmakers in Madison are stepping up and working to combat this growing epidemic. In February, Senator Bob Wirch (D-Kenosha) introduced Senate Bill 5, a bill designed to curb wage theft and support victims of this crime. On Tuesday, September 16, the Senate Committee on Labor and Government Reform held a hearing on SB 5.
The Wisconsin AFL-CIO was there to support the bill and urge Senators to put aside partisan politics and support SB5.
The Wage Theft Bill protect workers, levels the playing field for responsible businesses and supports stable families and communities.
Wage theft affects families. When work is not paid, families become unstable. Wage theft means less food is put on the table, rent or mortgage payments become burdensome, necessary clothing for children is not purchased, backpacks are tattered and empty as required back-to-school items are foregone, bills are not paid, and families have less money to spend in the local economy.
Wage theft affects other employers. When unscrupulous businesses have lower labor costs because they steal from their workers, it makes it difficult for law-abiding businesses who pay workers for their labor to compete in the market place.
Important reforms SB 5 will make:
- First, it requires employers to issue employees the terms & conditions of employment in writing. Thiswill inform workers of their pay, anticipated hours, and conditions of employment. It will give workers the information that they will need to accurately determine whether or not they’ve been a victim of wage theft.
- Second, SB 5 increases the statute of limitation. This will allow workers more time to deal informallywith their employers before making a complaint with the state.
- Third, it will increase penalties for employers who steal from their workers.
- Fourth, SB 5 will require businesses to disclose delinquent wage theft judgements when applying for licenses or registrations with the State. This will remove the veil so that taxpayers will know which businesses steal from workers.
This bill is about ensuring fairness. When you work, you should be paid the wage you've earned and are owed. Stealing workers’ wages is criminal behavior. Increasing workers' legal rights to their hard-earned pay is common sense legislation.
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