DENVER – Denver City Council members are working on a plan to help people who are victims of wage theft.
Last year, the council passed an ordinance allowing city prosecutors to pursue criminal charges for some victims of wage theft.
Now, council members are working to create a “civil remedy” to help workers get the money they’ve rightfully earned without going to court, which can be a difficult, time-consuming and expensive process for some workers.
“We felt that there was still a gap after the criminal wage theft legislation passed because we really wanted to make sure that our workers were getting paid and that is a civil remedy,” Denver City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer said.
Sawyer joined with other council members and community partners on Saturday to host a virtual town hall on the topic.
The legislation they are working on would allow the auditor to seek restitution for unpaid and underpaid workers.
“The auditor will start with the direct employer and then may move up the chain, link by link,” according to an outline of the policy proposal.
Proponents of the proposal say it would ensure workers can recover their wages “even if their direct employer is insolvent or has disappeared.”
The Colorado Fiscal Institute said Colorado employers steal about $730 million from their employees every year through wage theft.
The institute said about 440,000 workers in Colorado experience wage theft every year.
Wage theft occurs when a worker is paid less than they are legally entitled to, such as when they’re denied pay for working overtime or are forced to work “off the clock” or through legal meal breaks.
It also occurs when employers take illegal deductions from employee paychecks or misclassify employees as “independent contractors” to pay them less.
One man, Osvaldo, agreed to share his story with Denver7 but wished to remain anonymous, only providing his first name.
He is an undocumented immigrant who says he worked at a construction site in Denver for three months earlier this year but never received his final paycheck.
He said he felt “frustrated” and “fooled.” He estimates the employer owes him about $1,500.
Osvaldo says this also happened to him two prior times with another employer.
“It affected not just his family, but his extended family,” Monica Rodriguez said. “He tends to help us sister back in Mexico, so he's not able to do that. It has really affected all his bills, honestly, rent and other bills that he has to pay.”
Rodriguez, who helped translate Osvaldo’s answers during the news interview, is with Centro Humanitario, which tries to help workers in these types of situations.
She says undocumented immigrants are often victims of wage theft and many have little information about their employers.
“They have like day labor sites where they are picked up. They only know that, and they don't know anything else about the employer,” Rodriguez said. “So, it gets to become really hard to try to track them down and try to get them to pay the worker.”
According to the Denver City Attorney’s Office, there are 390 cases of wage theft every year in the city where the value of wages not paid is less than $2,000.
Osvaldo says with council members working on another plan, it feels like someone is finally listening to people who are in his position.
He just hopes it’ll be enough to ensure workers like him get a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.
