Wage Theft In America: Why Millions of Working Americans are Not Getting Paid - And What We Can Do About It

Wage Theft in America sheds light on a widespread problem that many are not aware of. Anyone who works for a living or knows someone who does should read this. -Bishop Gabino Zavala, Archdiocese of Los Angeles

This is a powerful, timely, and enormously important book for the religious community, social justice organizers, and all who care about justice in the workplace. -Rev. Nelson N. Johnson, executive director, Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, North Carolina

In what has been described as "the crime wave no one talks about," billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year. The scope of these abuses is as staggering as it is wrong-paying employees far less than the legal minimum wage, purposefully misclassifying employees as independent contractors, illegally denying workers overtime pay-and only now are people beginning to take notice. Nationally recognized labor activist Kim Bobo's Wage Theft in America is an incisive handbook for organizers, workers, and concerned citizens on how to prevent the flagrant exploitation of America's working people. Offering a sweeping analysis of the crisis and providing concrete solutions, with special attention to what the new presidential administration should do, Wage Theft in America addresses one of the most egregious and unfair practices affecting workers today. -Rev. Nelson N. Johnson, executive director, Beloved Community Center, Greensboro, North Carolina

"I don't recall reading a more insightful book about this topic." --Daily Kos

In what has been described as “the crime wave no one talks about,” billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year—a grand theft that exceeds every other larceny category. Even the Economic Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank, has estimated that companies annually steal an incredible $19 billion in unpaid overtime. The scope of these abuses is staggering, but activists, unions, and policy makers—along with everyday Americans in congregations and towns across the country—have begun to take notice.

While the first edition of Wage Theft in America documented the scope of the problem, this new edition adds the latest research on wage theft and tells what community, religious, and labor activists are now doing to address the crisis—from passing state and local wage-theft bills to establishing mayoral task forces and tapping agencies that help low-wage workers in spotting wage theft. Offering a sweeping analysis of the crisis, citing hard-hitting statistics and heartbreaking first-person accounts of exploitation at the hands of employers, this new and updated edition of Wage Theft in America offers concrete solutions and a road map& for putting an end to this insidious practice.