Stolen chances: Low-wage work and wage theft in Iowa
Gordons new report for the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project, available at www.iowapolicyproject.org, expands on a 2012 report that estimated wage theft to be a $600 million problem in Iowa. It examines new data on wage complaints, based in part on a survey of low-wage workers conducted by the Center for Worker Justice of Eastern Iowa (CWJ), and it places Iowas wage theft crisis against a broad backdrop of low-wage and precarious employment.
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About a quarter of the 300 workers surveyed said they had experienced wage theft in some form in the previous 12 months. Gordon said the most common issue identified in the survey was nonpayment for overtime hours worked, cited by 62, or 20 percent, of the 300 workers surveyed.
We only interviewed low-wage workers, Gordon noted. Current attention to the overtime issue nationally shows this problem unpaid overtime affects workers throughout the economy.
The survey also found almost as many workers (59 of 300) reporting late or unpaid wages.
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Only 87 percent reported receiving a pay stub, without which employees have difficulty verifying payment for hours worked, or to identify deductions being made. Likewise, transparency on pay can be difficult when payment is made through debit cards, but 1 in 6 respondents (50) reported being paid with a debit card at some point in the last 12 months. Of those, 29 reported paying fees to access their money and 23 had trouble accessing their money.
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http://iowadailydemocrat.com/news/2015/09/stolen-chances-low-wage-work-and-wage-theft-in-iowa/