'It has really gotten out of hand': wage theft rampant in US construction

Source: The Guardian

‘It has really gotten out of hand’: wage theft rampant in US construction

US regulators are cracking down on business practices that mean workers are not paid their due, a problem exacerbated in building industry by use of labor broker system

Michael Sainato
@msainat1
Wed 14 Feb 2024 12.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2024 12.03 GMT

For years, Cristian Céspedes worked as a foreman for a construction contractor, Unforgettable Coatings, in Las Vegas, where he and his co-workers often worked over 60 hours a week without overtime pay.

He recalls having to tell workers who were injured on the job that they had to deal with the injury and pay for medical care themselves. He knew the treatment and conditions imposed on himself and his co-workers were wrong, but he didn’t know he could do anything about it.

“I always knew stuff was wrong. I just didn’t know where to go to seek help,” said Céspedes, who recently became a union organizer and said a wage theft investigation was kicked off after workers started meeting with local union organizers and learning about their rights.

Wage theft is a pervasive problem facing workers throughout the US. According to a 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute, workers lose over $50bn a year to wage theft from employers. Wage theft includes tactics from stiffing workers on pay, failing to properly pay workers for overtime, minimum wage violations, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and not providing workers with mandated break times.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/14/construction-worker-unions-wage-theft