TPMCafé’s weekly book club is focusing this week on the problem of wage theft — workers not being paid in full for their labor, despite what the law requires — using the new book Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid - And What We Can Do About It as a starting point. (The book was written by Kim Bobo, the founder of Interfaith Worker Justice.)
The discussion has involved some of the smartest people around when it comes to labor issues, so it’s well worth your time. Here are links to each participants’ posts so far, presented in the order they were posted, so you can catch up with the discussion:
Kim Bobo: The Crime Wave No One Talks About (May 11)
Ten years ago, I had no idea wage theft was such a crisis — though I suspect it was just as prevalent then as it is today.
Nathan Newman: Stealing with a Pen Instead of a Gun (May 11)
I would ask why a crime involving millions of people and tens of billions of dollars stolen each year is so poorly enforced and so widely ignored in the media. But the answer is unfortunately obvious. Rich people stealing from the poor is just not considered a serious crime.
Dean Baker: Combating Wage Theft (May 11)
There is no reason to view this as a question of regulation: it is a question of law enforcement. Would anyone call the prevention of shoplifting a problem of regulation? How about the prevention of bank robbery?
Liza Featherstone: Why Hilda Solis Is No Frances Perkins (Hint: It’s Not Her Fault) (May 12)
I love the idea of holding [President] Obama to the standards of the 1930s, but most likely, we’ll need 1930s-style politics to do it.
Steve Greenhouse: Sunlight and Enforcement are the Best Disinfectants (Against Wage Theft) (May 12)
I’m sure that Kim Bobo, like me, wonders whether some, indeed many, Wal-Mart employees are still being forced armed into working off the clock.
Liza Featherstone: Lock ‘Em Up! (May 13)
In her book, Kim half-apologizes for quoting religious texts on wage theft that may sound “harsh and judgmental.” But I think on this issue most Americans would support a vengeful approach! Something along the lines of, say, Old Testament meets “Cops.”
Nathan Newman: What Part of Illegal Don’t Conservatives Understand — or Why do They Ignore Wage Theft (May 13)
Let me say that I am more optimistic than Liza about Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary. She may not have the same grassroots pressure on her as Perkins had, although with tens of millions of undocumented and legal immigrants in sweatshop conditions, there is that potential. But Solis comes to the position with a deep personal and political understanding of what is at stake.
T.A. Frank: I’ve Experienced Wage Theft - But I’m Glad No One Went to Jail (May 13)
Policies of wage theft can be set implicitly rather than explicitly. I can say to my worker, “Finish sewing forty shirts by tomorrow morning.” And I can add, “Don’t work any overtime between now and then or you’re fired.” I haven’t requested off-clock work, but I still know I’ll get 40 shirts by the next morning and a time card that says my employee worked 8 hours.
The discussion will be continuing throughout the week; you can follow it at TPMCafé.