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Description
Testimony on the extent and impact of wage theft in Philadelphia by Temple University Professor Jennifer Lee at the meeting of the Philadelphia City Council Law and Government Committee held on October 27, 2015.
The testimony was in reference to Bill #150741 which would create a wage theft coordinator and create mechanisms and penalties for employers who commit wage theft.
View the bill at https://phila.legistar.com/
B
Good
morning,
members
of
the
committee,
my
name,
is
Jennifer
Lee
and
I'm,
a
clinical
professor
of
law
at
Temple
law
school.
There.
I
work
at
with
students
at
the
shallow
center
for
social
justice
and
speaking
of
social
justice.
Wage
theft
is
a
pressing
social
justice
issue.
We
must
fight
for
the
right
of
hardworking
Americans
to
receive
their
lawfully
earned
wages
for
Fair
day
of
work.
We
represent
low-wage
workers
in
our
clinic
and
from
this
we
know
firsthand
how
employers
steal
wages
from
their
workers.
B
Here
in
Philadelphia,
employers
fail
to
pay
their
workers
minimum
wage
and
overtime,
they
take
unlawful
deductions,
they
steal
tips
or
they
simply
fail
to
pay
for
work
that
was
performed.
We
have
also
studied
the
issue
in
order
to
better
quantify
their
prevalence
of
wage
left.
Here
in
Pennsylvania
in
June
of
2015,
we
released
a
report
called
short-changed
where
we
found
that
there
was
a
wage
left
epidemic
among
low-wage
workers.
B
B
B
In
a
month,
not
in
a
year,
we've
also
heard
today
about
pretty
eloquently
about
the
human
cost
of
wages
left
on
workers,
but
wage
theft
also
means
that
the
city
loses
out
on
tax
revenue.
It
means
that
the
local
economy
is
deprived
of
money
that
can
be
spent
by
workers
and
that
law-abiding
businesses
are
harmed
by
unfair
competition
by
employers
who
undercut
the
bottom
line
by
committing
wage
theft.