Over the past year, the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division recovered $6.5 million in back pay for workers. While the organization has stepped up its efforts since the recession, the amount collected represents only a percentage of the wage theft that occurs in the Constitution State, according to the Stamford Advocate:
A significant portion of the complaints – nearly 2,800 of them, accounting for $3 million – were from workers reporting that they were not paid at all. Another $1.2 million was distributed to workers who were not paid minimum wage or overtime as required by law. And more than $2 million was distributed to construction workers who were paid less than the state’s prevailing wage for government projects.
The Wage & Workplace Standards Division gets about 4,000 complaints a year, said the director, Gary Pechie. Most are from workers in the construction industry, service industries such as hotels and restaurants, and the transportation industry employing taxi, limo and tractor-trailer drivers, Pechie said.
“I don’t think people understand how tremendously workplaces have changed since the recession,” Pechie said. “There’s a lot of shenanigans going on.”