Wage theft occurs when employers fail to pay workers as required by law.

Examples of wage theft include:

• Not paying workers at all

• Paying below minimum wage

• Failing to pay overtime

• Denying meal and rest breaks

• Not paying for required sick leave

• Taking workers' tips

• Paying with invalid checks or checks with insufficient funds

• Breaking promises to pay later

• Forcing employees to record fewer hours than they actually worked

Los Angeles is the wage theft capital of the U.S. Low-wage workers in the city lose $1.4 billion to wage theft every year, with workers in Chicago and New York not far behind. Together, these three cities account for $3 billion in wage theft annually.

In Los Angeles alone, at least 650,000 low-wage workers lose $26.2 million every week. The average amount of wages stolen is $40 per worker each week, which represents 12.5% of their total income. For workers earning under $20,000 annually, this amounts to an average loss of $2,070 each year. Many cases handled by the Wage Justice Center involve wage theft amounts far greater than this average.

• Nearly 55% of wage theft violations in Los Angeles are due to failure to pay minimum wage.

• 43% of workers who report wage theft or try to unionize face retaliation, including firing, reduced hours, or verbal abuse.

• According to the UCLA Labor Center, 83% of companies ruled against by the Labor Commissioner between 2008-2011 never paid back any wages owed.