City Council
October 9, 2024
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Background and Council Request
What is Wage Theft?
How does the State prosecute violations?
What can a local ordinance do?
Next steps
3 Council retreat requested Healthcare,
Prevailing Wage and Wage Theft Ordinances
for consideration
Healthcare and Prevailing Wage feasibility
study underway with Strategic Economics
Wage Theft Ordinance for discussion tonight
4 Typically, minimum wage/overtime violations
Most affected employees are food service
workers, followed closely by construction
workers
Estimated $2B stolen annually across all
sectors (based on 2017 analysis)
5 CA Labor Commissioner’s Office determines
a wage theft violation
If the employer that owes the wages fails to
pay the workers, a judgment is issued to help
the worker recover the wages
These judgments are court orders to pay
wages and other monies owed
6 Draft ordinance would focus on narrow band
of potential actors: contractors or
subcontractors working on new construction
or large remodels (>15,000 SF)
Why? Building permit and Certificate of
Occupancy give the City an enforcement tool
to deploy that we don’t have with general
operating businesses
7 Withholding building final approvals may
incentivize resolution
Particularly effective if a contractor or
subcontractor working in the City has a state
issued judgement of wage theft
Without a final building permit, contractors
are not usually paid in full
8 1. As project condition, Applicant must submit a form declaring they comply with all state labor laws
2. Applicant must submit a Pay Transparency Certification that there are no unpaid wage theft judgements
3. Ordinance is complaint driven and submitted to
Building Official prior to Building Final
4. City Attorney responsible for verifying complaints with State and overseeing any appeal process
5. Building Official withholds approvals until resolved 9 The City of San Jose has a wage theft
ordinance for new construction that informed
the City’s draft ordinance
The City of Fresno has focused enforcement
with both civil and criminal charges
Recent state grant to the SMCo District
Attorney will ramp up local enforcement and
support referrals
Provide feedback on the draft ordinance
and/or
Consider introduction of the draft ordinance
for adoption tonight
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