The closer you look at how our economy actually works, the clearer it becomes that it really only works for bosses and the already wealthy. When it comes to workers, the economy is utterly broken. Ample evidence of this can be seen in data on the most common type of theft in New York: wage theft. Bosses stealing their employees’ wages extracts millions from working people in our communities every year.

This certainly includes Long Island. Locally wage theft has shown up through minimum wage and overtime violations, refusing to pay wages owed after illegal firing, and flat out refusing to pay for hours worked at all, among many other cases.

Workers, organizers, and advocates on Long Island have been fighting wage theft in workplaces and in state government for years. Despite these efforts wage theft remains a difficult problem to solve, and the struggle to protect workers from predatory bosses needs to be broadened.

One way to help combat wage theft is by coming forward about wages that were stolen from you. Have your wages ever been stolen by your boss? Let us know using a form linked here. And please share with friends or anyone you know whose boss has stolen from them! The form is also available in Spanish and Haitian-Creole. We’re building a movement to stop wage theft and need your input!