More than three years after 15 laundry workers first lodged their complaint with New York Attorney General Letitia James, the employees—all Latina immigrant women—finally received the first checks for their owed salaries. The case is emblematic of what can be a long road to justice for victims of wage theft, which lawmakers estimate impacts some 2.1 million New Yorkers each year.
They quickly learned the laundry cycle: receiving, washing, drying, ironing, folding, and packing up clothes in bags, then readying them for distribution by delivery vans. They clocked out when all the clothes were ready to be dispatched, a process that took longer than the regular 8-hour work day, but they were not paid overtime or sick leave. They believed they were not entitled to overtime pay because they were migrants—and they were wrong.
The workers were employees of Enterprise Cleaner, also known as JM Pro or KTN Cleaner, commercial dry cleaners in Astoria, Queens, where the owners failed to pay proper minimum wage, overtime and sick pay, according to an investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office that began in 2020. The company’s owners reached a settlement with the AG’s office in October, agreeing to pay back $90,000 in owed wages.
Earlier this month, more than three years after the laundry workers first lodged their complaint with New York Attorney General Letitia James, 15 of them, all Latina immigrant women, finally received the first checks for their owed salaries. The...
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