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Kimberley A. Bobo

Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid And What We Can Do About It Paperback – September 13, 2011

by Kim Bobo (Author)

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“This book will give you an entirely new perspective on work in America.” ―Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

In what has been described as “the crime wave no one talks about,” billions of dollars’ worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year―a grand theft that exceeds every other larceny category. Even the Economic Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank, has estimated that companies annually steal an incredible $19 billion in unpaid overtime. The scope of these abuses is staggering, but activists, unions, and policymakers―along with everyday Americans in congregations and towns across the country―have begun to take notice.

While the first edition of Wage Theft In America documented the scope of the problem, this new edition adds the latest research on wage theft and tells what community, religious, and labor activists are now doing to address the crisis―from passing state and local wage-theft bills to establishing mayoral task forces and tapping agencies that help low-wage workers in spotting wage theft.

Citing hard-hitting statistics and heartbreaking first-person accounts of exploitation at the hands of employers, this updated edition of Wage Theft In America offers concrete solutions and a roadmap for putting an end to this insidious practice.

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The New Press
Publication date

September 13, 2011
Dimensions

6 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

1595587179
ISBN-13

978-1595587176
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Argues perfectly for the importance of community allies in improving struggling workers' lives.
―Boston Review

In this fascinating yet disturbing (and ultimately optimistic) book [Bobo] provides the reader with nothing less than the anatomy of an invisible epidemic.
―the Black Commentator

About the Author

Kim Bobo is the founder and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice and a columnist for Religion Dispatches. She is the author of Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing and the co-author (with Jackie Kendall and Steve Max) of Organizing for Social Change, the most widely used manual on progressive activism in the country. She lives in Chicago.

Product details

Publisher : The New Press; Revised edition (September 13, 2011)
Language : English
Paperback : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 1595587179
ISBN-13 : 978-1595587176
Item Weight : 15.1 ounces
Dimensions : 6 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,997,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #553 in Labor & Employment Law (Books)
- #555 in Labor Law
- #1,503 in Political Advocacy Books

Customer Reviews:
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Rod Kackley

This story needs to be read

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2012

Verified Purchase

Very good book on a problem that I don't think many people appreciate. I would be willing to bet many victims don't even realize they are being victimized, especially white collars working under the title of "independent contractor." I interviewed Kim for a piece I am writing on Wage Theft in Michigan (should be out before the end of the year) and I came away very impressed.

Helpful

cal48boy

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

Ohhh, lost it !!
Must read, must buy again !!

Helpful

Nice person

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2013

Verified Purchase

If you want some insight on what's going on with some businesses today you must read this book. Time and money
are valued by everyone. You give your time and work in exchange for money in compensation. You do not deserve
to be cheated.

Helpful

Good Points Made

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2011

Verified Purchase

The author makes good and valid points. However the book could have been summed up in less than half the amount of pages.

Helpful

Larry Benjamin

A widespread crime that no one talks about

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2014

Wages are the easiest place for businesses to cut costs. Other overhead - taxes, utilities, materials - provide very little leeway, but wages are an agreement between the employer and the employee. The employee sells his labor for the promise of future payment, and if the employer fails to live up to that promise, the fear of job loss - of no longer having a ready market for his labor - trumps any leverage the employee might have. The Fair Labor Standards Act recently celebrated its 75th anniversary as the federal requirement that employers pay a minimum hourly wage and time and one-half for overtime, but abuse is rampant and widespread. Employers who would never dream of evading taxes or Social Security, think nothing of cheating employees out of their required wages, probably because of the fluidity of the relationship. If the employee agrees to work unrecorded and unpaid hours, and he is informed in advance that he will be paid his straight time rate for overtime hours, then it doesn't seem as serious a violation as submitting a fake expense receipt to the IRS. Of course, they are equivalent; both are laws of Congress.

The author catalogs numerous instances of wage theft in various industries. "Wage theft" is a brilliant term, bringing this act to a personal scale, more so than "violation" or "noncompliance," which imply an infraction of bureaucratic rules. An employer who does not pay his employees properly is certainly breaking the rules, but there is a human cost as well, which "wage theft" takes into account. One solution is increased enforcement. Bobo compares the ratio of federal Wage and Hour investigators to the working population, and notes that the ratio was highest in the 1940s, shortly after the law's passage. Taking the increase in population into account, and allowing for higher modern levels of productivity, she calculates that the number of investigators should be increased from the then-current 700 or so (there are around 1300 today) to 4500, to achieve a ratio equivalent to past figures. An appendix lists the judgments in recent Wage and Hour cases, followed by a list of private judgments, that often exceed the government ones by a factor of ten or even 100. Clearly, enforcement alone is not enough - effective legal backup is also required.

The book is liberally sprinkled with Biblical quotations that support the idea that people should be paid fairly for their work. As a deeply committed, practicing Christian, the author exemplifies the religious left, a group frequently overwhelmed and drowned out by the much louder religious right. It's good to be reminded that religion can be a force for good as well as evil.

Some potential solutions are not touched on. For example, one way to reduce or even eliminate wage theft would be to require employers to pay workers in advance, rather than after work is completed. There would certainly be instances where workers would quit without performing the work they had already been paid for, but obviously, no one interested in keeping their job would do this. There would still be abuses - it may not be possible to pay pieceworkers accurately in advance, or to anticipate sudden needs for overtime, and some employers could still coerce workers to accept advance payments below what the law required or demand kickbacks, but at least the situation where an employer goes out of business still owing workers their last paycheck would be rare.

Another reform not discussed is the idea of an annual minimum wage, rather than an hourly one. Recent proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour sound great for full-time workers, but will not be helpful to someone working ten hours per week. The purpose of wage laws are not so much to reward the individual worker, but to ensure a level playing field and a just society, where businesses are successful based on the quality of their product, and not their degree of inventiveness in cheating their employees. Employers must come to realize that these laws are not punitive, but exist to protect them from unscrupulous competitors. Every year, the United States inches closer to the third world model of a tiny elite surrounded by masses of the poor, with no middle class to speak of. Wages ultimately return to businesses in the form of purchased goods and services. Workers who are not paid will buy less. This elementary observation seems to be lost on many politicians who seem interested only in creating an environment where businesses are protected from workers, and not the other way around.

Helpful

Bosses Across America Stealing from Their Employees w/o Remorse

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2009

They plot injustice and say,
"We have devised a perfect plan!"
-Psalm 64:6

There is an unrefutable crime wave of employers across America stealing from their employees without remorse. Billions of dollars a year are being illegally stolen from the wages of their hard working honest employees.
Why? One, they can get away with it. Two, it's capatialism Wall Street style: GREED IS GOOD! Three, Scores of EXCELLENT Employers have been placed at a competitive disadvantage by their countless unscrupulous competitors, who consistently steal from their workers wages, and don't pay any taxes: federal, state, or local.
Isn't something being done? NO! Just as Wall Street steals Hundreds of Billions in the "little People's" taxes without fear/"Too Big To Fail" or Prosecute; the employers from small businesses to some of the nation's largest know the government's have too few investigators(In 1941 it was 1 investigator to 9,000 employers, today it is 1 to 170,000 employers & the disparity is growing!). The odds are better of lightning striking them. If lighting does stikes at all, their worst punishment is they must pay the workers what they are owed! But, if a workers steals from his or her employer, the worker faces SERIUOS consequences! It called capitalism Wall Steet style: he who has the gold makes the rules(Laws).
The author goes into detail how this has come about. She goes into the history of labor and its hard fought and won battles over the past decades, and how workers are hanging on by the skin of their teeth just to run in place, trying not to lose any more the U.S. worker's rights than they've already lost.
There are many examples of the differents methods used by employers to steal wages. These are then poignantly personified and examined. Also, since the author's organization is associated with other religious oranizations throughout America, she weaves into the narrative biblical scriptures that are directly related to the suject matter that is being focused upon. Loaded with government/bible quotes, statistics, facts, stories and more. This is an information/spiritually rich work that is not only important but morally imperative. We as a people must stand up and fight against the evils she so pointedly writes about.

Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
and do not crush the needy in court,
for the LORD will take up their case
and will exact life for life.

-Proverbs 22:22-23

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!

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