Wage Theft The Focus Of Roundtable Discussion In Philadelphia
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A roundtable discussion on wage theft was held Monday in Center City at the Community Legal Services office. Unions and workers advocates talked about what they are calling an epidemic in low paying job sectors.
Wage theft is illegally withholding pay or denying benefits owed an employee. A report by the Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple University shows the practice is widespread. The Center's Jennifer Lee explains how employers do it.
"They may fail to pay overtime, they could do this by putting the worker on salary, for example, that's not accounting for overtime premiums for hours worked in excess of 40-hours a week, they may fail to just pay workers for all hours that are worked."
A couple workers told stories of not being paid after working long hours, or being threatened. National AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka was also in on the discussion.
"The report and the stories force us to confront a question, really. What kind of country do we want to live in?"