May Day started in 1886 as a fight for an 8 hour work-day, but what if you work 8 hours and only get paid for 7? Some hard working families in Arkansas are victim to employers who violate a variety of wage laws by paying less than the minimum wage, requiring “off-the-clock” work, stealing tips, not paying overtime, refusing final paychecks, unfairly classifying their workers as independent contractors, or not paying their workers at all. This type of fraud is known as “wage theft” and Arkansas isn’t doing as much as other states to prevent it. Unlike 38 other states, Arkansas doesn’t require pay-stubs, which are a simple way to deter wage theft by allowing employees to keep track of their earnings and dispute any errors. Arkansas also lacks strong anti-retaliation laws and reasonable penalties for employers who are caught skimming off the top. Currently, Arkansas employers are only penalized if the theft is shown to be “intentional”, and the penalty can be as low as $50.

Wage theft takes money out of the pockets of working families who are usually already on hard times. Most victims are low-income workers who can’t afford to legally challenge their employers.  A study of low-wage workers in Chicago and surrounding areas found that about half of were victims of pay violations, amounting to an average loss of $2,595 per year.  A full-time minimum wage worker who prepares their work station for 15 minutes each morning before being allowed to clock in, and cleans up for 15 min off the clock at the end of their shift, will lose more than $1,400 each year. That is about an extra six percent taken out of an already tight budget, and for a parent getting along on minimum wage, that can mean the difference between paying rent on time or being evicted. Even getting a delayed paycheck can put a strain on families who are struggling to make ends meet.

Wage theft pushes hard working families into poverty. Employers take more from their employees than actual robbers; the amount of money returned to wage theft victims in 2012 was worth almost three times as much as all reported robberies, or nearly a billion dollars.[i] Since most victims never report, the actual amount owed to workers is probably closer to $50 billion. Wage theft hurts families and puts ethical employers at a competitive disadvantage. When parents struggle with unfair pay cuts, their kids struggle too.It’s time to lay the groundwork for improved workers’ rights in Arkansas.

[i] Estimate by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and FBI crime statistics