Day is an organizer for the Employee Rights Center and lives in North County. Calderon is the center’s executive director and lives in San Diego.
Wage theft is on the rise in the United States, and San Diego County is no exception. Many employers fail to pay their workers, even after being ordered to do so by the state labor commissioner’s Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement.
The Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement awarded millions in judgments to San Diego County workers over a 10-year period, but only a fraction led to payouts. The problem is enforcement. There are too many loopholes in the law, giving employers the opportunity to ignore it. And they do.
Some labor experts say the problem is not the fault of the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement, but the lack of tougher anti-wage theft enforcement measures from California’s state legislators.
NPR affiliate KQED in San Francisco reported in March that even though the law requires the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement to hold a hearing within 120 days after a complaint is filed, the wait has increased to as much as 1,000 days in multiple cities.
This creates extreme hardship for low-income families. If a worker complains, he or she gets fired. The KQED report explained the case of a woman who often worked 12-hour shifts but was only paid for six hours. After...
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