Wage theft is actually much, much higher than this. The Wage Justice group found that $1.4 billion in wages is stolen just from Los Angeles residents alone, on an annual basis. Add in NYC and Chicago and that number rises to $3 billion annually. It's important to recognize there are many kinds of wage theft and most of it never gets reported because of how useless an effort it often is. Shy of a few rare class action suites, almost no wage theft ever gets punished. That's why I advocate for the formation of a CAPB or Corporate Abuse Protection Bureau.. similar to the CFPB, this legal division would provide average Americans access to a federal legal team to pursue cases against companies normally too big to prosecute. In a nation where access to legal representation is a constitutional right, we should have a division of "public defenders" designed to represent us against entities too big for us to take on alone. But really, what we need are Public Prosecutors, to pursue cases on our behalf with taxpayer funded resources that can help us recoup billions each year and pay for itself by keeping corporations honest. With the CAPB, we could finally tip the scales and create truly equal justice system for the American workforce.
3 years ago (edited) | 142
And that’s just the estimate for what is stolen illegally
3 years ago | 114
"Give a man a gun and he'll rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he'll rob the world"
3 years ago | 281
You’d think right-libertarians would genuinely be upset with wage theft, as it’s actual theft in violation of contract, but they never mention it and mock anyone who does.
3 years ago | 268
Robbery is an economic issue. If the people in charge weren't stealing from their "employees", then those employees wouldn't resort to theft.
3 years ago | 81
Thats why it floors me people get mad when a mob robs macys People are blasted with manipulating adverts 24/7 of things they arr 'suppose' to have and consumr. When they realise they could never afford it well... Ya get we have collectively created.
3 years ago | 15
I think wage theft just shows the power imbalance as well between bosses and their workers. If the boss has so much power they can get away with such rampant crime, they are also using this power to get a better deal on their side of the bargaining for wages, so even legal wages can hardly be considered fair.
3 years ago | 22
Dang, when you look at it like that, it's kind of like all of these billion dollar corporations actually owe us money. It would be socially irresponsible NOT to take some back every now and then.
3 years ago | 12
True! This is why we say that capitalism is exploitative.
3 years ago | 31
Love that you don't even have to go into the labor theory of value and the idea that all profit is theft, you can start right here with the illegal stuff lol
3 years ago | 44
If you haven't stole from your low paying job, you haven't lived.
3 years ago | 28
Robberies are a mix of violent and non-violent crimes in every city that effect a much bigger demographic of people but concentrated in the poorer communities. Not disagreeing, great point! It might be a lot harder to identify and investigate wage theft than everyday robberies.
3 years ago | 0
Don’t forget about robbery by cop aka Civil Asset Forfeiture
3 years ago | 11
I believe this. Here in Canada it happens alot too. The people mostly doing it are immigrants too with the private businesses they have to own for 5 years(Canadian immigrants are expected to own a business for 5 years in order to gain citizenship). My cousin worked for one and she said the last paycheck she earned from her she kept and refused to pay her. My sister worked for that same woman and she didn't pay my sister minimum wage.
3 years ago | 0
The Gravel Institute
Who is really doing the "looting"?
3 years ago | [YT] | 4,663