Nearly $700 million in wages are stolen from about 350,000 low-wage workers each year in
Massachusetts.

Wage theft covers a variety of infractions that occur when workers do not receive their legally required or promised wages. Common forms of wage theft are:

• Non-payment of overtime
• Not giving workers their last paycheck after a worker leaves a job
• Not paying for all the hours worked

In today’s economy, where employers increasingly subcontract or outsource core parts of their business to other companies, wage theft has overwhelmed the capacity of our existing labor laws and enforcement mechanics.

This bill would:

• Increase Responsibility: Holds “lead contractors” accountable for the wage theft violations of their
  subcontractors.
• Protects Wage Rights: Protects workers from wage theft violations such as failure to make wage payments; failure to abide by minimum wage, prevailing wage and overtime laws; and independent contractor misclassification.
• Protect Workers against retaliation for reporting wage violations.
• Improve Government Enforcement: Streamlines the enforcement power of the Attorney General’s office by allowing it to bring wage theft cases directly to court and seek damages on behalf of workers.
• Allow a Stop Work Order: In cases where there has been a determination of a wage theft violation, the AG will have the power to issue a “Stop Work Order,” which temporarily halts work until the violation is corrected.

Read more here.