California's Wage Theft Crisis: A Call for Action and Effective Representation

Please call us at (805) 807-4108 for Kevin Rehwald, and (805) 807-4110 for Lauren Peterson for a free and confidential consultation

A recent audit of the California Labor Commissioner’s Office painted a rather bleak picture of the agency’s ability to recover unpaid wages for victims of wage theft. An article by Suhauna Hussain of the Los Angeles Times details the findings and can be found here.

The Labor Commissioner rarely recovers the full amount of wages due to victims of wage theft, achieving this result in only 12% of the cases it handles. Cases are often left to languish, and the backlog in active cases ballooned from 22,000 in 2017 to 2018 to a staggering 47,000 in 2022-2023. There are approximately 2,800 claims that have been open for five years, and these cases have a total value of $63.9 million in unpaid wages.

The Labor Commissioner is severely understaffed. The audit found that the Labor Commissioner needs almost 900 positions to meet the needs of wage theft victims in California. However, the Labor Commissioner only has 315 positions, about 100 of which are currently unfilled.

As a dedicated advocate for wage theft victims, these results are both angering and saddening. In 2011, the California Legislature passed the Wage Theft Prevention Act of 2011 (Assembly Bill 469) to enhance the efficacy of the Labor Commissioner’s Office. It provided powerful enforcement mechanisms to the Labor Commissioner to recover on wage theft awards. However, the audit demonstrates that these enforcement mechanisms are all but meaningless if the state agencies empowered to use them are underfunded, understaffed and totally ineffective.

California is again looking to enhance private enforcement of its anti-wage theft laws by adding new provisions to California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) by way of Assembly Bill 2288. However, the reality is that many of California’s anti-wage theft laws are already robust enough for private enforcement by dedicated wage and hour attorneys. The problem is that most wage and hour attorneys only want to handle class action lawsuits. This is because, while often providing only scant benefits to wage theft victims, it provides millions of dollars in fees to the lawyers.

My experience is that there is a profound lack of skilled and competent wage and hour attorneys that are still willing to represent individual victims of wage theft. And the attorney who are willing to handle individual claims often lack the experience and legal acumen necessary to adequately represent these victims.

As an anecdote, I recently met with a wage theft victim who had an individual case that was wroth $1,000,000. However, her attorney mispled the claim, resulting in it being dismissed in Court. Even worse, it was against a deceased individual, and the lawyer failed to follow the claims filing procedures outlined in the California Probate Code. When she finally came to our firm, it was too late, and her ability to recover was severely limited.

Therefore, if you are a victim of wage theft, it is absolutely critical that you find the right law firm. Rehwald Peterson is the leading law firm in representing in-home caregivers and individual wage theft victims in actions brough pursuant to California’s Domestic Worker Bill of Rights. During the same period of time that the Labor Commissioner has been unable to consistently or meaningfully recover unpaid wages, our firm has successfully represented over 400 domestic workers, caregivers, and personal attendants in wage theft actions, recovering approximately $75,000,000.

Many of our clients had earned poverty wages, often as low as $4.50 per hour, for working 24-hours per day. Many of our clients worked for 7-days per week. We are extremely proud of our results and we have changed hundreds of lives through our work. We have a dedicated, knowledgeable and highly skilled team that help you if you are a caregiver or a personal attendant. We cannot guarantee any results, but I can promise that we will fight tooth and nail to get you your wages, and that we the skill, knowledge and expertise in litigating Domestic Worker Bill of Rights cases, and achieving top notch results.

We are located in Southern California. But we handle cases all throughout the State.

Please call us if you have any questions. You can also visit our website at caregiverovertime.com and you can learn more about us on our Facebook Page. We want to help and we can help. Call us.

This article is an attorney advertisement written by Kevin Rehwald and Lauren Peterson, employment law attorneys at Rehwald Peterson. Our office is located at 32107 Lindero Canyon Rd, Suite 121, Westlake Village, Ca. We accept cases throughout Northern and Southern California. Each caregiver overtime claim is unique. Our examples are of a general nature and are not a guarantee regarding the outcome of your individual matter. The law firm focuses on caregiver rights. Please Call Or Text - (805) 807-4108 for Kevin Rehwald, and (805) 807-4110 for Lauren Peterson for a free and confidential consultation. Please visit us at www.caregiverovertime.com/ to learn more about caregiver overtime law.

Explore the shortcomings of California's Labor Commissioner in recovering unpaid wages and learn how dedicated wage theft attorneys can help victims secure their rightful compensation.