AUSTIN, Texas — The Travis County District Attorney and the U.S. Department of Labor are recommitted to cracking down on wage theft.
The departments have worked together since 2021 to defend workers who don't get what they're owed from their employers. Earlier this week, they renewed their agreement allowing them to share information, conduct joint investigations and coordinate enforcement efforts.
An investigation by the Department of Labor revealed there has been over $5.7 million found in back wages owed to more than 5,600 workers in Travis County since 2019.
District Attorney José Garza said wage theft comes in many different forms, but the most common they see is where a person doesn't get paid for the work they do. According to Garza, reports show that 11% of all low-wage workers across Texas experience wage theft, specifically in construction and retail.
That often affects vulnerable populations.
"That is younger workers, older workers, immigrant workers ... tend to be victims of wage theft, and as a result, this crime often goes unreported,” Garza said.
Garza said some workers may be scared to report wage theft, or don’t have the means to. The enforcement of wage theft has also been historically nonexistent. Garza said they rely on state and federal agencies to investigate instances of it. That's where the Department of Labor comes in.
“It is important to us that they have a place to go when they see evidence of a crime," Garza said. "So that we can take that evidence, hold people accountable and seek justice for workers who had their wages stolen."
District director of the Department of Labor, Nicole Sellers, said not all wage theft cases are criminal. Sometimes employers just don't know how to properly pay employees.
“Just the time that our investigators are spending with them, they learn and they are able to employ their workers in compliance,” Sellers said.
However, if investigations find violations that are intentional and willful, then they assess money penalties, or see if the case is a good candidate for offices like Garza's.
Sellers said some common violations or signs of wage theft can look like straight time for overtime after 40 hours in a week, deductions from pay that drop people below the minimum wage, or misclassification of workers as independent contractors and then paying them a piece rate or a day rate.
“Maybe it's hot checks, or it's a kick back of wages,” Sellers said. “Kick back of wages means we conducted an investigation. We found workers [are] due back wages but the employer asked them to give the money back or to say that they got paid, but they didn't. Those are good candidates for us to be able to refer to the DA’s office, or any of the other criminal law enforcement agencies we work with.”
Garza said he's prosecuted 10 cases since the start of this partnership in 2021. In 2013, the law changed to make it easier to prosecute wage theft. From 2013 to 2020, there were only four prosecutions of wage theft across Texas.
Depending on the criminal history of the defendant, Garza said a person could be convicted of a felony crime, face probation, or jail time. Regardless, Garza said they take wage theft seriously and will continue to protect the community from it.
“When you steal working people's wages, you make that family unstable, you destabilize their community, and that makes all of us less safe,” Garza said. “For us, this is a public safety matter. We know that making sure people get paid the wages that they have earned keeps our community safe.”
If you feel that you may be experiencing wage theft at your workplace, the labor department's Wage and Hour division has a hotline you can call to report it at 1-866-487-9243.
