Interview: Kim Bobo On How Billions Are Stolen From Workers
Tuesday, November 11, 2008(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Q: What motivated you to write a
book about wage theft?
Interfaith
Worker Justice supports a network of 20 workers
centers and the number one issue the workers
centers deal with is wage theft — workers not
getting paid for all their work. I also became aware
of the Department of Labor’s lack of
responsiveness to the problems reported by
workers centers and the seeming inability or
unwillingness of the DOL leadership to
adequately address the crisis of wage theft.
Initially, I planned to write a short monograph
offering a new vision for the Department of
Labor, but as I began writing I realized that I
had to explain why we needed a new
vision for the Department of Labor. Pretty soon
I had a whole book on wage theft.
Q:
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights recently released a report on contingent
workers in DC, and found that 62 percent of day
laborers have not been paid for their work at
some point. Is this unique, or would we see the
same pattern in many other places?
Every
survey of day laborers I’ve seen shows
similar patterns. Day laborers are shorted
hours, paid less than minimum wage, driven to a
worksite and left without transportation home,
and not paid at all. It is scandalous that
individuals and companies would take advantage
of day laborers.
Q: What is the most
shocking thing you discovered in researching
and writing Wage Theft in
America?
It is hard to know
where to begin on what is the most
shocking thing — there were so many. Here are
some of the worst:
* How widespread
the problem of wage theft is.
Millions of employers are
stealing billions of dollars from
workers each year.
* How few federal
enforcement staff people are assigned to
“police” our nation’s workforce.
There are fewer than 750 enforcement staff to
protect 130 million workers in 7 million
workplaces. The Wage and Hour Division of the
DOL has fewer than half as many enforcement
staff today as it did in 1941 and it does half
as many investigative actions as it did then,
when it was responsible for only 15.5 million
workers. There aren’t enough cops on the
job.
* How many private lawsuits
there are on wage theft. Every week there
are new wage theft settlements reported in the
newspaper. My book has a huge appendix listing
private lawsuit settlements on wage
theft.
* How few people understand
the crisis of wage theft. As I worked on
the book, I talked with hundreds of friends and
neighbors about the
crisis. The first question people ask is,
“What is wage theft?” The second is, “How
does this happen?” Almost everyone knows
someone who has been shorted wages, not paid
overtime, misclassified as an independent
contractor, or had wages stolen in some other
fashion — yet seldom do people understand
that these are not isolated problems but rather
society-wide in scope.
Q. With new
national leaders coming into office, what would
you like to see done at a national level to
address the issue of wage theft?
The
new Secretary of Labor and the new Wage and
Hour Administrator must make stopping and
deterring wage theft a priority for the agency.
Compared to many of the problems facing our
nation, this is a relatively easy one to
address, but it will require leadership. The
new leadership must:
* talk with the
American people and with the country’s
ethical business community about the crisis of
wage theft;
* punish those who steal
wages in meaningful ways;
* increase
staffing levels for enforcement — it’s
impossible for 750 enforcement staff to
adequately protect 130 million
workers;
* work cooperatively with
workers centers, unions, employment lawyers,
law school clinics, ethical business coalitions
and others who could help stop wage
theft.
Q. Do you have any advice for
local activists looking to fight wage theft in
our communities?
Absolutely. Get my
book and read it — there are lots of concrete
suggestion in it. The book can be
purchased from the Jobs with
Justice website or at Busboys
and Poets in Washington and can be
pre-ordered at Amazon.com. In addition you
can:
* Support and volunteer at local
workers centers such as the DC Employment
Justice Center, Casa de
Maryland and Tenants
and Workers United in Alexandria.
*
Join and work with DC Jobs with
Justice, which connects people with the
campaigns of these workers centers as well as
local union campaigns that help stop wage
theft.
* Organize a study/discussion of
the book using the Congregational Study Guide
(included as an appendix in the book and also
available at the Interfaith Worker
Justice website).
* Click
here for more information and
updates.
Kim Bobo is the founder and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice and a columnist for the online magazine Religion Dispatches. She is the co-author of Organizing for Social Change, the most widely-used manual on progressive activism in the U.S. In July, she gave congressional testimony on the Department of Labor’s failure to deal with wage theft, which can be seen here.
Kim will be in Washington this week to discuss her book at the following venues:
Tuesday November 11 at 7:00 PM
Georgetown University | McNair Auditorium [New North Building]
Wednesday November 12 at 12:00 PM
U.S. Department of Labor | Frances Perkins Building, 200 Constitution Ave. NW - North Conference Rooms N4437-A & B (4th floor)
Friday November 14 at 12:30 PM
United Methodist Building
100 Maryland Ave. NE
Saturday November 15 at 4:00 PM
Busboys & Poets | 2021 14th St. NW
All events free and open to the public.