Southern California workers who make garments for many of the nation’s leading fashion retailers remain victims of wage theft and illegal pay practices, with some earning as little as $1.58 per hour, according to a new U.S. Department of Labor report.
From July 31, 2021, to June 30, 2022, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division conducted 50 investigations of randomly selected garment contractors in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties to estimate the prevalence of violations within the industry.
Violations were found for 80% of the contractors surveyed, resulting in more than $892,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for 296 workers.
Half of workers paid off books
In more than half of the cases investigated by the Wage and Hour Division, employers illegally paid garment workers part or all of their wages off the books, with payroll records either deliberately forged or not provided, according to the Department of Labor report released last week.
“Despite our efforts to hold Southern California’s garment industry employers accountable, we continue to see people who make clothes sold by some of the nation’s leading retailers working in sweatshops,” Wage and Hour Regional Administrator Ruben Rosalez said in a statement.
“Many people shopping for clothes in stores and online are likely unaware that the ‘Made in the USA’ merchandise they’re buying was, in fact, made by people earning far less than the U.S. law requires,” he said.
The survey also found that 32% of the contractors paid garment workers piece-rate wages, a practice prohibited by the state in 2022.
Although California law requires that garment workers be paid an hourly rate that is not less than the minimum wage, the survey found, in a particularly egregious case, a contractor working for Nordstrom and Stitch Fix paid employees $1.58 an hour, Michael Eastwood, director of enforcement for the Wage and Hour Division’s Western Region, said Tuesday, March…
Read the full article here
