Leading retailers, customers benefit as workers struggle with wage theft
LOS ANGELES – A survey of Southern California garment-sewing contractors and manufacturers by the U.S. Department of Labor has found workers making garments sold by many of the nation’s leading fashion retailers often continue to be victims of wage theft and employers’ illegal pay practices.
Based on data from more than 50 contractors and manufacturers, the 2022 Southern California Garment Survey released today by the department’s Wage and Hour Division found violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 80 percent of its investigations. More than 50 percent of the time, the division found employers illegally paying workers part or all their wages off the books, with payroll records either deliberately forged or not provided.
The fiscal year 2022 survey also found 32 percent of contractors paying garment workers piece-rate wages, a practice prohibited by the State of California on Jan. 1, 2022. Contractors and manufacturers included in the survey produce garments for sale by national retailers that include Bombshell Sportswear, Dillard’s, Lulus, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Socialite, Stitch Fix and Von Maur.
In a particularly egregious case, division investigators learned a contractor paid garment workers as little as $1.58 per hour.
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