Wage Theft Quotes

When illegal labor is used, that almost always depresses wages paid to all workers. The illegal workers can be exploited, and they will usually accept lower wages. As a result, all workers in the plant, including U.S. citizens, will see their wages go down.

If the laborer gets no more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated ...

Some bosses believe they can't afford to employ someone legitimately - so they employ them illegally.

Were the workers who sweated to put food on my table paid at least minimum wage? Did they get health benefits? Overtime? Were they unionized? Protected from pesticide exposure?

The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.

Morally bankrupt wage practices and laws cannot hold.

The worker retains no respect for the property “rights” of the profit-takers … He knows that the present laws of property were made by and for the capitalists. Therefore he does not hesitate to break them.

Foreign workers typically migrate to Malaysia willingly, looking for greater opportunities, but often fall into forced labor or debt bondage.

When someone else is making money off of you and using your body, you need to step off the carousel.

Legally, many contractors are required to pay a prevailing wage. However, bad actors often find ways to get around this requirement.

What the advertisers are trying to do by eliminating residuals is the most appalling form of greed that I cry thinking about it.

I didn't get paid. I didn't even care that I didn't get paid.

Protecting children and vulnerable workers abroad is a part of our overall efforts here at the Department of Labor.

I am accused of using hard language. I admit the charge. I have not been able to find a soft word to describe villainy or to identify the perpetrator of it. The man who makes a chattel of his brother - what is he? The man who keeps back the hire of his laborers by fraud - what is he?

Illegal immigrants are beginning to comprise a black market class of workers in our society, jeopardizing the financial health of companies which play by the rules, while themselves vulnerable to the exploitation by those willing to take advantage of their illegal status.

The state of Washington calls tips 'wages.'

In Connecticut, we have a vibrant history of advocating to ensure our workers are treated fairly and given the rights and protections they deserve. Still, we need to do more to protect all American workers.

An American worker should not expect his pay to be cut because somebody comes to this country illegally and is willing to work for less than he or she should be paid.

Undocumented workers can't report if they're not being paid overtime, or if their health and safety laws are being violated, of if they're not getting the minimum wage. And so a lot of times companies prefer to hire them in order to take advantage of them. We've got to crack down on those employers.

Misclassification is a serious problem in construction as well as other industries, and it is exacerbated by increasingly fissured employment structures where work is contracted and subcontracted away from the core company.

Wage theft, worker rights and workplace discrimination should not be swept under the rug. The United States cannot have a functional economy where all the gains go to the corporate class while all the pain goes to regular workers.

In the end, I didn't get a dime of the money I was shortchanged.

While not a panacea for the nation's illegal immigration problems, employer sanctions are one necessary means of stopping the exploitation of vulnerable workers and the undercutting of American jobs and living standards.

The workers who get hurt by corner-cutting often do not realize they are being wronged. Even when they do, they do not have the support and resources to fight back. Without a union to stand behind them, these workers are forced to stay in bad jobs, or face no job at all.

Ascertain from employers whether the laborer is not regarded the same as a machine, thrown out as soon as all the work possible has been squeezed out of him.