In summary
Five years after workers win wage theft claims, state records show only 1 in 7 were paid their judgments in full. Some companies appealed or ignored court judgments.
Manuel Chavez, a former front-desk manager at the Stuart Hotel in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park neighborhood, was elated when he won a wage claim victory of more than $200,000 against his old boss in 2017.
California’s Labor Commissioner ruled Chavez had worked thousands more hours than his employer paid him for over a three-year period — a clear case of wage theft, the state decided after administrative hearings.
“I felt good, very content, after so much work and so much suffering,” Chavez said about his case.
Rather than paying Chavez, his former employer countersued, taking the case to appeals courts multiple times and trying and failing to get it heard by the U.S. Supreme Court — twice.
Chavez hasn’t been compensated. His experience may be unusual, but it underscores a plight common for thousands of California workers who win wage theft claims: Many bosses don’t pay, even after courts order them to.
Only 1 in 7 employers who were issued court judgments in wage claim cases in 2017 have paid their workers the full amount of the claims five years later, according to data from the Labor Commissioner.
That’s the state’s best estimate — a disclaimer on the agency’s website reads “Defendants often make payments to claimants directly without the knowledge of the Labor Commissioner’s...
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