A recent victory over wage theft shows what workers everywhere need to claw back their stolen pay—support, resources and enforcement.
by Mindy Isser, In These Times
In recent years, mainstream media has been dominated by stories of increased crime, but rarely do outlets cover one of the most common and insidious offenses in our society: wage theft.
Employers steal billions of dollars from workers every year by paying less than minimum wage, making employees work off the clock, not paying earned overtime, misclassifying workers as independent contractors and more. While wage theft is all too common, it is rarely reported. As a result, stolen wages are rarely recovered, leaving already-low wage workers even poorer — and bosses even richer. But around the country, workers have been fighting back by organizing with unions and using the tools available to them at labor departments on the municipal, state and federal levels.

In January, non-union construction workers at Unforgettable Coatings LLC who partnered with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) scored a major victory in the fight against wage theft by winning back more than $3 million that had been stolen from them. IUPAT’s success has shown that fighting back against wage theft is possible — although it can require time and resources that many workers lack.
Recent Posts
Watch This New Hollywood Movie About Gaza
May 30, 2025
Take Action Now At 178 at the time of publication — and now higher — the count of journalists and media workers killed by the Israeli…
Israel Is Losing Americans’ Support. Will Democrats Take Notice?
May 29, 2025
Take Action Now New polls show broad opposition to Israel’s genocide — and that Democrats’ intransigence on Gaza greatly reduced turnout…
Ukrainians Need (And Want) An End To War
May 28, 2025
Take Action Now It would be tragic to give up on negotiations now.By RJ Eskow, The Zero Hour Report Donald Trump’s expressed exasperation over…
Cuomo Hopes Phony Antisemitism Charges Can Beat Zohran Mamdani
May 28, 2025
Take Action Now Zohran Mamdani is closing the gap with Andrew Cuomo.By Theodore Hamm, Drop Site In the summer of 2024, Andrew Cuomo announced the…