For many low-wage workers, it’s not a hypothetical question. Businesses routinely refuse to pay the correct hourly wage, dodge taxes by misclassifying workers, refuse to pay workers earned overtime, and make employees work “off the clock.” More than 2 out of 3 low-wage workers experienced at least one type of wage theft in the previous week...
Read MoreWage Theft Campaign
EJC advocacy staff has led a coalition of community groups and unions that succeeded in getting the D.C. Council Committee on Housing and Workforce Development to hold a hearing on misclassification legislation designed to penalize employers who fraudulently claim their employees are independent contractors. Committee Chair Michael Brown adopted several of EJC’s recommendations for strengthening the bill further and responded favorably to testimony by EJC staff and clients that put a spotlight on flaws in the Office of Wage-Hour’s handling of wage theft claims under current law and demonstrated the need for further reform. EJC advocacy staff have also met on several occasions with Department of Employment Services staff, including the Director, Deputy Chief of Staff, Deputy Director, and General Counsels to advocate for improvements to the Office of Wage-Hour’s case handling protocols and interaction with claimants and are preparing to press these reforms at OWH oversight hearings this Spring. Finally, EJC’s new policy attorney has convened a group of experienced wage and hour law practitioners to discuss and prepare substantive and procedural changes to be included in EJC’s model bill to combat wage theft by strengthening D.C. minimum wage and unpaid wage statutes.
To get involved, please email advocacy@dcejc.org.
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