CORRECTION: This story has been updated to indicate Los Angeles is the wage theft capital of the U.S., according to data from the Los Angeles Worker Center Network. (Oct. 20, 2023)
LOS ANGELES — Three times a year, 71-year-old Josephine Biclar packs up a big box, fills to the brim with goodies for her family back in the Philippines.
“All the money that I am earning here is being sent home because I have two grandkids still in school,” she said.
What You Need To Know
- California state law requires employers to pay workers at least minimum wage for the first nine hours and overtime beyond that
- New data from the Los Angeles Worker Center Network shows LA is the wage theft capital of the world
- Workers across the county lose $26 million to $28 million every week, and 80% of low-wage workers experience wage theft
- The LA City Council recently passed a package of motions addressing wage theft helping bolster enforcement
Biclar came to the U.S. in 2010, finding work as an in-home caregiver for elderly patients. But after she broke her shoulder in a client’s home, she’s been forced to slow down, working only two days a week.
She also spends time at the Pilipino Workers Center, an organization she connected with in 2015 after learning her employer was stealing her wages.
“I was only being paid $110 for 24 hours' work, and I was with my patient for three years,” she said, which amounted to about $4.50 an hour working for a home care agency. Biclar says that during that time, she worked 24 hours a day, caring for clients and sometimes enduring physical abuse.
California state law requires employers to pay workers at least minimum wage for the first nine hours and overtime beyond that, but Biclar says she was told to falsify her timesheets and only log eight hours of work each day.
“Those three years that I was working with them, I really don’t know. I don’t know what is our right,” she said. “I am only thinking that I am good because I have work when I came in.”
Biclar and her coworkers eventually filed a lawsuit against the agency and won a settlement, but not every victim of wage theft sees justice. New data from the Los Angeles Worker Center Network shows LA is the wage theft capital of the U.S., with workers across the county losing $26 million to $28 million every week and 80% of low-wage workers experiencing wage theft.
Related Stories
- ‘Rolling retail’ revitalizes business amid soaring rent prices in LA
- Starbucks, Workers United union sue each other in standoff over pro-Palestinian social media post
- SoCal hotel workers continue strike as negotiations stall
- UAW will strike plants when, where needed with little notice, union president says
PWC executive director Aquilina Soriano Versoza says immigrant workers and people of color are the most vulnerable who don’t know they have rights.
“It can be very scary to think about addressing wage theft because, you know, it’s your livelihood, but it’s really important that workers know that they have rights no matter their immigration status, that they should be paid fairly at least minimum wage with overtime protections,” she said. “LA city and the state have strong anti-retaliation protections.”
Versoza says it will take the combined efforts of workers reporting violations and enforcement to stamp out the issue. The LA City Council recently passed a package of motions addressing wage theft helping bolster enforcement. The LA County DA’s office also created a new labor justice unit focusing exclusively on wage theft.
Biclar is also helping educate workers about their rights, urging them to speak up against violations.
“I want to learn more so that I can extend help to other people who also need help,” she said.