The Sneaky Ways Employers Are Stealing Our Wages

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/labor/sneaky-ways-employers-are-stealing-our-wages

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Grand Larceny?

The research report Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers estimates the scale and scope of low-wage theft in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The authors write:

"The average worker lost $51, out of average weekly earnings of $339. Assuming a full-time, full-year work schedule, we estimate that these workers lost an average of $2,634 annually due to workplace violations, out of total earnings of $17,616. That translates into wage theft of 15 percent of earnings.

"The Economics Policy Institute (EPI) uses those numbers to provide a national estimate:

"The total annual wage theft from front-line workers in low-wage industries in the three cities approached $3 billion. If these findings in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles are generalizable to the rest of the U.S. low-wage workforce of 30 million, wage theft is costing workers more than $50 billion a year."

How much is $50 billion in wage theft? It's almost four times greater than the $13.6 billion reported by the FBI for the total costs of all stolen cars, other larcenies, burglaries and robberies in 2012. Fifty billion a year is enough to cover the wage bill for over $1.2 million jobs that pay $20 an hour.

Not me?

You may be thinking "Thank god I'm not a low-wage worker. Nobody's stealing my pay." Or are they?

The only difference between the rest of us and a day-laborer is that our employers have developed ways to fleece us legally. And we're not talking about a few dollars here and there. Nearly half of our wages have been misappropriated. Enter Exhibit #1: The Productivity/Wage Gap.

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R!