Act Now to Stop Wage Theft

From Interfaith Worker Justice (http://www.iwj.org):

Now more than ever, the nation is waking up to the devastating realities of wage theft.

In the past two weeks alone, workers recovered, or are in the process of recovering, stolen wages on a Nebraska farm¹, in a Hollywood animation studio², at a Papa Johns franchise³, at a popular burger chain founded by a famous actor⁴, at a Hilton Hotel⁵, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The national publication The Week also wrote about wage theft this week, calling it “one of the biggest crime waves in America”.⁶

Take action now to stop wage theft at http://org.salsalabs.com/o/1035/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19284.

Not every wage theft case gets reported and only a tiny slice of workers who are victims of wage theft ever recover their stolen pay. Estimates of the scale of wage theft show that workers lose at least $50 billion per year from unscrupulous employers.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

One simple way to ensure that working people aren’t victims of wage theft is to create a uniform system of documentation for payrolls nationwide.

The Paystub Disclosure Act would do just that, mandating that every employer in the country provide paystubs to their employees, use transparent bookkeeping, and give employees the right to inspect those records if they suspect wage theft.

In June, IWJ leaders from across the country traveled to Washington, DC to visit with members of Congress to urge them to support the Paystub Disclosure Act. While some lawmakers were receptive to supporting the bill, we still need more support to pass this legislation before the current Congress ends.

Your members of Congress need to hear from you. Will you take a moment to send a note to your lawmakers asking them to sign on to the Paystub Disclosure Act?

Every week, IWJ affiliate organizations fight wage theft in communities across the country. They support individual workers in calling out their employers for stealing wages, they expose employers who frequently commit wage theft, and they organize to pass local ordinances to protect workers’ rights to collect the wages they have earned with their hard work.

Their work is powerful, but workers need stronger federal protections against wage theft.

That’s why it’s so critical that we do everything we can to pass the Paystub Disclosure Act in this Congress.

Take a few moments to use our automated system to send your members of Congress a note asking them to support this legislation. This quick action goes a long way.

Please, contact your member of Congress and urge them to support the Paystub Disclosure Act today!