California wage theft: Is the state following its own rules?
From restaurants to retail, construction to car washes, an estimated $50 billion is wrongfully withheld from workers each year. A big chunk of that cash is being kept out of the hands of California workers. There have been major problems since 2017, and it's still going on now.
During all of it, California workers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Senior Reporter Ross Palombo has the shocking data and details.
We're talking about money that has already been earned, and is owed, but never winds up in your paycheck because sometimes employers don't pay all of your hours, or all of your overtime, or break time, or any time at all.
And even when the state does step in, we've discovered that only a fraction of workers ever see a dime.
There is a state law to help. But the data shows California isn't always following it, and tens of thousands of employees are losing.
For years now, Antonio Dominguez has been working to make his future shine, coming to this country with nothing more than ambition and elbow grease, polishing countless cars and hoping to see success shining back in his reflection.
And the hardest part, he says, has just been trying to get paid. Dominguez started by working at La Playa Car Wash in Culver City, washing and drying cars for six years. Until, he says, he finally realized he was the one being taken to the cleaners.
"They wanted us to come in early, they didn't give us our lunches, our 10 minutes," Dominguez said through an interpreter.
"They start figuring like 'Oh, wait a minute, I'm not getting paid for all of the hours that I worked,'" said Flor Rodriguez, executive director of CLEAN Carwash Worker Center.
Flor Rodriguez helped organize 63 employees from the same car wash and filed a claim with the California Labor Commission.
And you believe there are millions of dollars that that car wash owes employees?
"Oh yeah, for sure," said Rodriguez.
The state agreed, and cited the car wash for $2.36 million for wage theft, saying workers weren't being paid for waiting time, saying there was no overtime pay, and saying managers regularly altered workers' timecards to reduce total hours worked.
And, if it's happening at car washes, do you think it's happening at other places?
"Definitely happening in many other places," said Flor Rodriguez. "Wage theft, it's definitely rampant."
In fact, our CBS News analysis of data obtained by CalMatters, from the California Department of Industrial Relations, found tens of thousands of cases across California: 63,442 claims of wage theft since 2017, totaling more than half a billion dollars, at $558,617,654.
The median amount of those claims is $2,070. And similarly across the state, that comes out to about one and a half weeks' salary, or nine weeks of groceries, or one month's rent, or 80 percent of a median mortgage payment.
"Definitely struggling with rent, definitely struggling with food," said Flor Rodriguez.
You've seen workers lose their housing, you've seen workers go hungry, and you've seen small children impacted?
"Yes," said Rodriguez. "It's definitely a lot."
Even if the state orders a claim to be paid, California's own data shows more than half -- 58 percent -- never see a dime. And only about a third, 28 percent, ever get paid in full. That means out of a half-billion dollars ($558,617,654) in wages across California, our investigation found the state has only recovered $126,853,456. That's less than a quarter of the money -- only 23 percent.
"It's shameful," said California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D).
California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo has been working to change those numbers and change how the state regulators deal with wage theft.
By law, the Labor Commission has 135 days to hear and decide a case. But our investigation found the median time the state takes to resolve a case is more than three times longer: 439 days.
Does that bother you, that the state appears to be breaking its own law?
"Of course it bothers me," said Durazo.
Is the state doing its job?
"We are not doing our job. We are not doing, the state is not doing its job. And we need to change things," said Durazo.
She's now working on a law to speed up the process and give the state more enforcement powers to get that money back more quickly.
Santa Clara County tried it on its own and began pulling restaurant and food licenses if owners didn't pay up. It cleared nearly all of its cases.
"That's why our ability to collect is so important," said Durazo. "It's critical, and we need stronger tools so that employers don't think that it's so easy to get away with not paying, like those car wash workers."
Car washer Antonio Dominguez's complaint helped lead the state to cite the car wash in 2019, and now, nearly four years later, he still hasn't seen a dime. The car wash filed an appeal.
We tried to speak with owner Hooman Nissani, but only found a new manager.
"I haven't seen that in my supervision and I'm a manager, so," said Hugo Flores.
And at a Beverly Hills mansion that records show Nissani's LLC purchased in 2018, the one with an "N" on the gate and cars with plates registered to his dealership in the driveway, the woman at the door said she never heard of him.
After rescheduling with us time and time again, Nissani's attorney said they would not comment on the workers' specific allegations, but said overall they are not true.
"It was very hard," said Antonio Dominguez. "The problem is is that we didn't know where to go."
Hard to keep working and waiting for justice from both his former employer, and state regulators who are supposed to keep business owners clean.
Is that fair?
"What I want people to know in general, the workers, is that in this country, in this state, we have rights," said Dominguez.
The attorney for Hooman Nissani would not give us any of their appeal documents, but did verify earlier reporting saying their appeal claimed that the state investigation was flawed, relied on anecdotal evidence, contained "untruthful statements" from the workers, and that the fines were "grossly inflated."
The car wash also submitted its own audit supporting its case that concluded the car wash may have overpaid its workers.
In the last 24 hours, Nissani's attorney says that there is now a signed settlement agreement with the state. But she would not send us a copy of that settlement, and would not give us any of the details. The state has not verified anything has been signed.
Nissani's attorney says "It is a fair settlement." And, she says, the car wash has now been in compliance for years.
