Low-income workers cite ‘wage theft’ by employers, By Tony Pugh, June 6, 2012, Detroit News: “For nearly a year, unemployed home health worker Leslie Gilbert of Grand Rapids has fought to get more than $400 in unpaid wages from her former employer. After months of promises that the money would be in her ‘next paycheck,’ Gilbert filed a complaint in October with the state. Officials told Focus Care Home Health of Southfield, to either pay Gilbert by June 1 or face a formal hearing. Gilbert still doesn’t have her money. Her experience is a classic example of what workers’ rights advocates call ‘wage theft,’ the practice of underpaying or not paying workers for their labor. The problem reflects a changing economy in which low-wage work has increased, more companies try to cut labor costs to stay afloat in a sour business climate, and fewer workers belong to unions that might protect them. At the same time, budget-cutting state and federal governments do not enforce wage laws as aggressively as they once did…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty