LOS ANGELES - In advance of the Labor Day holiday weekend, Councilmember Tim McOsker introduced resolutions calling for the city to take a stance on worker protections including addressing the gender pay gap discrimination and setting a national standard for paid family leave. He also introduced, with Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, motions looking to provide the city with the resources needed to prosecute wage theft.
“Our workers contribute to our city more than they will ever know and we cannot express our appreciation enough,” said Councilmember McOsker. “While Labor Day is a celebration of our workforce to reflect on how far we've come, it’s also important for us to realize how far we need to go. From closing the gender pay gap, to setting a national standard for paid family leave, to addressing the scourge of wage theft, the city must do our part and continue to stand up for hard-working Angelenos and workers across the country.”
The first resolution McOsker introduced, is calling for the city to take a position to support workers facing wage discrimination on the basis of gender. The “Paycheck Fairness Act” (S.728 and H.R. 17) would end the practice of pay secrecy and strengthen available remedies for wronged employees — attempting to close the persistent gender pay gap.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. However, across the country, women still earn on average 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, resulting in a gap of $11,782 each year—and the disparity is worse for women of color.
McOsker also introduced a resolution asking the city to take a stance on the “Healthy Families Act” (S.1664). Introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the Healthy Families Act would set a national paid sick days standard and give workers the opportunity to earn a minimum of seven paid sick days per year to care for themselves or their families.
Today, the U.S. remains one of the only two major developed countries in the world that does not provide nationwide paid time off for short-term illnesses nor paid leave for family and medical needs and emergencies. 34 million workers lack any paid sick time at all, including 25 percent of the private sector workforce and 9 percent of the public sector workforce. The Healthy Families Act would take a critical step toward meeting the health and financial needs of working families.
In advance of Labor Day, McOsker introduced a motion looking to better effectuate wage theft cases. The city's mechanism for handling these serious workplace violations is largely through the Office of Wage Standards (OWS). The motion looks to analyze current resources used to prosecute wage theft cases and see if there are any staffing or other needs to address this.
According to a UCLA study on Wage Theft and Workplace Violations in Los Angeles, thirty percent of sampled workers reported serious minimum wage violations, with approximately 80 percent being denied both legally required overtime pay and rest and meal breaks. Violations amounted to $26 million per week or $1.4 billion per year.
With wage theft overwhelmingly affecting lower-wage workers, women, people of color and immigrant workers, McOsker’s motion looks to broaden the outreach efforts so the public is aware of the complaint process for filing a wage theft claim in languages other than English and other than electronically.
Also today, in recognition of Labor Day, McOsker co-presented two motions with Councilmember Soto-Martínez seeking to increase the authority and capability of the OWS to better enforce claims against employers for the most well-known violations of wage theft including Overtime, Meal Break, Rest Break, Late Pay, Tips and Gratuities violations. The second motion seeks to identify resources needed to properly coordinate, enforce and implement as well as how to prioritize the claims brought by lower wage workers.
“Wage theft is one of the most under-recognized drivers of poverty and homelessness in Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Soto-Martínez. “Even as stolen wages cost hard-working families in our city over $1 billion each year, our city and state are seriously lacking the resources needed to ensure that workers are able to receive the wages and benefits they earned.”
All three Wage Theft motions will be heard in the Civil Rights, Equity, Immigration, Aging, and Disability Committee.
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