A workers’ guide to wage theft: What to do if your boss steals your wages in Pa.
If your boss isn't paying you or is illegally deducting wages, here are your available options to get you what you're owed.
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Wage theft is common in low-wage industries in Pennsylvania.
Tens of thousands of workers — in restaurants, nail salons, warehouses, farms, car washes, and other industries — lose out on millions of dollars in stolen wages each year.
Wage theft happens when employers deliberately pay workers below the minimum wage, deny them meal or rest breaks, fail to pay overtime premiums, or engage in other practices to cheat them out of pay.
What should you do if you find yourself in this situation?
What is wage theft?
Wage theft covers a wide range of offenses that relate to employers not paying their workers the money they are owed or taking money away from them, according to Rhiannon DiClemente, one of Community Legal Services’ staff attorneys for the employment unit.
Wage theft can look like:
Failing to pay someone for all of the hours they worked. It can be as simple as your paycheck not being what you’re owed, or such situations as being asked to work through an unpaid lunch break or to stay later at work without being paid for it.
Failing to pay Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour. If you calculate the total amount of money you earn per hour, and it’s less than $7.25, you are being subjected to wage theft.
Failing to pay overtime pay (1.5 times the regular pay rate) when someone works more than 40 hours in a workweek. Sometimes employers will lower your regular pay rate to reduce the amount of money they owe you in overtime wages.
Illegal deductions from pay. There are specific permissible deductions under state law that generally need to have a worker’s written authorization, and the deductions have to benefit the worker in order for them to be legal.
What should I do if I believe my wages are being stolen?
Document everything. If and when you need to advocate for yourself, you want to have a record of everything to prove your case.
Here’s what you should do:
Have a record of the dates and hours you worked, including when you started and stopped working.
Save copies of all communication with your employer, including but not limited to texts, emails, or written agreements.
Start compiling your pay stubs or documenting each time you’ve been paid if you work for cash or under the table.
Verify the full name, phone number, and addresses of your employer. Sometimes employers operate businesses under different names or it’s not easy to verify who owns the business.
How to file a wage theft complaint
You can file wage theft complaints with the local, state, or federal government — depending on the circumstances. For example, the U.S. Department of Labor wouldn’t investigate wage theft complaints that occurred on a local level by a small business — they would fall under Philadelphia’s Department of Labor.
Contact a free legal assistance organization (listed below) or a lawyer to help you figure out the best place to file your wage theft complaint.
You can file a complaint with the city’s labor department by email or phone. But your complaint has to meet certain requirements before you do.
The complaint must be filed within three years of the alleged wage theft.
The total amount of wages lost has to be more than $100 and less than $10,000 (even if you’re owed more than $10,000, you can only claim up to that much).
If you meet these requirements, then download, fill out, and email this form it to wagetheft@phila.gov. You can also call 215-686-0802 to file a complaint or request assistance. All this information can be found in different languages online.
You can file a complaint with the state’s labor department online or by mail. However, the wage theft has to have occurred within the last three years. File a complaint online using this form or download and fill it out and mail it to: Bureau of Labor Law Compliance, 1301 Labor and Industry Building, 651 Boas St., Harrisburg, Pa. 17121.
On the federal level, you can get the process started by phone, in-person, or online. The wage theft has to have occurred within the last two to three years. It’s also not as simple as filling out a form and sending it in like the others — you’ll need to talk with Wage and Hour Division investigators before the complaint is filed.
The federal labor department deals with large employers. This includes businesses involved in interstate commerce, government or public agencies and employers that make more than $500,000 a year in sales.
Call 1-866-487-9243, fill out a contact form online from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, or visit the nearest office to get started.
What happens after I file a wage theft complaint?
The Department of Labor that you filed the complaint with will review evidence and decide whether an investigation is needed. Investigators will meet with your employer, interview employees, and review employer records.
If violations are found in the employer’s policies, the employer will need to correct them. If any back wages are owed, investigators will request that the employer pay back employees.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.