Wage Theft: A Crime You Can Get Away With  (Co-authored with
Cristina Francisco-McGuire.)  (Cross-posted at Huffington Post.)
This week, we authored a report grading states on how well they
protect a fundamental workplace right: getting paid what you are
legally owed. This right is so basic and common-sense that most
people are still unaware of how commonly it is violated.  Wage
theft, or the illegal underpayment of workers, has become so
widespread, it affects millions of workers across the country
and is nearly ubiquitous in certain industries: retail,
restaurants, hospitality, day-labor, warehousing, child care,
and construction. That’s a lot of people – already not getting
paid enough – whose bosses illegally make their paychecks even
lighter.  The last time a detailed, multi-state survey was done,
the findings were shocking. Researchers in three of our nation’s
largest cities interviewed thousands of workers who earned at or
near the minimum wage, and found a wide array of workplace
violations. Here are