Mark Engler writes on Talking Union
By actually regulating businesses and standing up for workers’ rights, the new Department of Labor is part of a "quiet revolution" in government.
Those who voted for "change you can believe in" in 2008 have found many reasons since Obama’s inauguration to be disappointed with the new White House. But there have been some bright spots in the administration’s first year as well—positive steps that illustrate the difference that a progressive-minded administration can make when it stands up to corporate interests and is unafraid to act in the public good. One well worth acknowledging as the administration’s second year gets underway is the work of the Department of Labor under Secretary Hilda Solis.
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Given her track record, it is not surprising that Solis has distinguished herself in the Obama administration. Perhaps the landmark achievement of her first year as labor secretary was her decisive move to crack down on "wage theft." Wage theft is a concept that has been promoted in recent years by grassroots labor activists including Kim Bobo, founder and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice and author of Wage Theft in America. "Wage theft is widespread and pervasive across all types of companies," Bobo wrote recently. It ranges from mom-and-pop car wash and restaurant owners stealing tips from workers and withholding employees’ checks after promised paydays to corporate sub-contractors or Wal-Mart stores requiring off-the-books overtime or failing to pay the minimum wage. All this, Interfaith Worker Justice argues, constitutes a "crime wave that no one talks about." It represents theft from workers totaling at least $19 billion a year, according to the Economic Policy Foundation.
Read the entire piece here.