ProGov21 Policy Library

City Strategies to Combat Wage Theft and Empower Workers

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2013

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Local Progress

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This policy brief outlines policy levers local jurisdictions can use to address wage theft and support local workers. Some of the policies detailed include quality administrative systems, reliable data for tracking wages, and stronger sanctions for violating wage theft provisions....

LA Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2023

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source Los Angeles City Council

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This Los Angeles ordinance ensures that freelance workers are treated fairly and receive the compensation they are due. It mandates that freelance worker contracts must be in writing, establishes that hiring entities provide full payment to freelance workers on the day of the written...

20 Kansas City Wage Theft Ordinance 040964

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2004

Level City or Town

State(s) Missouri

Source Council of Kansas City

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Children & Families, Finance & Procurement

This ordinance redefines "stealing" to include wage theft. A person may be criminally prosecuted if they refuse or fail to pay for the labor or services provided by an individual pursuant to an agreement....

2017 San Diego Ordinance 10-2017 Mandating Equal Pay

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2017

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source City of San Diego

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance ensures compliance with non-discrimination laws and the California Equal Pay Act. It further requires businesses to equalize wages between employees who perform equal or substantially similar work, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity....

2015 El Paso Ordinance 018370 Responding to Wage Theft Complaints

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2015

Level City or Town

State(s) Texas

Source City of El Paso

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Finance & Procurement

This ordinance outlines the procedure for wage theft complaints in El Paso, TX. In particular, this ordinance creates a wage theft database, maintained by a Wage Theft Coordinator designated by the City Manager, to identify employers with a wage theft adjudication record, establish...

St. Petersburg Ordinance 161-H Responding to Wage Theft Complaints

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2015

Level City or Town

State(s) Florida

Source City of St. Petersburg

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Finance & Procurement

This ordinance details the procedure for wage theft complaints in St. Petersburg, FL, including the process of filing wage theft complaints, employer responses, conciliation, and hearings before a hearing officer. Moreover, this ordinance also outlines enforcement practices and retaliation...

2021 Detroit Ordinance Establishing Industry Standards Boards

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2021

Level City or Town

State(s) Michigan

Source City of Detroit

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Economic Justice

This 2021 ordinance allows Detroit's city council to establish industry standards boards, which bring workers and employers together to set standards for wages, benefits, and working conditions. It outlines the process by which worker groups may petition for an industry standards...

Pinellas County, FL Wage Theft Ordinance

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2016

Level County

State(s) Florida

Source Pinellas County, FL Office of Human Rights

Policy Areas Economic Justice

Wage theft is the non-payment or underpayment of earned wages to employees by employers. This can include an employee's earned paid time off, leave, vacation or sick pay. For example, wage theft includes paying less than minimum wage, not paying workers overtime, not allowing workers...

2015 Los Angeles Ordinance 183613 Creating a Wage Enforcement Division

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2015

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source City of Los Angeles

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance establishes a new Wage Enforcement Division to enforce violations of wage theft in Los Angeles, establish penalties, and grant authority to the City of Los Angeles Police Commission to deny, revoke or suspend a police permit issued or requested by an employer found...

2011 San Francisco Ordinance 175-11 Regarding Wage Theft

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2011

Level City or Town, County

State(s) California

Source City and County of San Francisco

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights

This ordinance enhances the ability of the City and County of San Francisco to enforce its minimum wage by requiring employers to create dispute resolution policies, increasing the penalty for employer retaliation, and establishing penalties for employers that fail to provide personal,...

Wage Theft: A quiet crisis in Ohio: in absence of state investment, cities can take the lead

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2019

Level City or Town

State(s) Ohio

Source Policy Matters Ohio

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Finance & Procurement

Wage Theft causes large amount of national loss each year. Ohio spends few resources on wage investigation, and hence cities can take steps to prevent wage theft within their jurisdictions. Cities can use procurement, licensing, tax enforcement, and tax incentives....

2022 Cleveland Ordinance 892-2022 Preventing Wage Theft and Payroll Fraud

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2022

Level City or Town

State(s) Ohio

Source City of Cleveland

Policy Areas Civil Rights

This ordinance prevents persons or entities that have engaged in wage theft or payroll fraud from bidding on city services or construction contracts or receiving financial assistance from the city. It also requires the city to create a database of entities that have committed such...

2022 Madison Living Wage Ordinance 12.363 Mandating a Living Wage for City Employees

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2022

Level City or Town

State(s) Wisconsin

Source Madison City Council

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance requires employers that contract with the City of Madison, receive financial assistance from the City, or operate in City-owned facilities to pay their employees a living wage. The City of Madison must also pay their employees a living wage. This ordinance defines a...

Public Task Forces Take on Employee Misclassification: Best Practices

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County, Other Boards and Agencies, State

State(s) All States

Source National Employment Law Project

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Economic Justice

Cities, states, and workers' organizations have established interagency task forces to take on companies that illegally misclassify workers. This report provides an overview of best practices for creating worker misclassification task forces and highlights successful case studies....

10 Ways to Rebuild the Middle Class for Hard Working Americans

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2012

Level City or Town, State

State(s) All States

Source Partnership for Working Families

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Public Safety, Health

The U.S. economy is headed towards greater inequality as middle-class jobs are becoming increasingly scarce, while low wage jobs are growing. This report details ten proposals to strengthen the economy for the long term by creating “good” jobs and addressing the economic insecurity...

2011 Philadelphia Ordinance Establishing Fair Practices for Employers

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2011

Level City or Town

State(s) Pennsylvania

Source City of Philadelphia

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance creates fair practices for employers within the City of Philadelphia. Some notable clauses include prohibiting employers from inquiring about prior wage history, prohibiting businesses from denying cash retail, and establishing protected classes....

Saint Paul Wage Theft Ordinance

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2024

Level City or Town

State(s) Minnesota

Source City of Saint Paul

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This Saint Paul ordinance prevents the theft of wages earned by city workers. It mandates that employers pay all wages earned by their workers, ensures that employers provide their workers with a written notice that states their rate of pay, and requires employers to provide earnings...

Denver Minimum Wage Ordinance

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2019

Level City or Town

State(s) Colorado

Source Denver City Council

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance creates a local minimum wage of $12.85 as of January 2020 in the City of Denver, CO, ties the local minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to prevent inflation from eroding wages, and establishes penalties for noncompliance and enforcement strategies....

Innovation and the City

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2016

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Center for an Urban Future

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Environment & Natural Resources, Energy, Democracy & Governance, Children & Families, Health, Housing, Public Safety, Education, Transportation & Mobility

In recent years, cities have become the drivers of government innovation. As urban growth has exploded over the past half century - increasing from a third to nearly 60 percent of world population today - local officials have been forced to solve problems and generate new ideas, policies,...

Winning Wage Justice: An Advocate’s Guide to State and City Policies to Fight Wage Theft

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2011

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) All States

Source National Employment Law Project

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Economic Justice

This guide outlines effective state and city-level policies for strengthening the enforcement of minimum wage and overtime laws. This guide advocates for policies that raise employers' costs for violating wage laws, strengthen local government's capacity to enforce labor regulations,...

2013 Albuquerque Ordinance 13-018 Requiring Pay Equity for Contractors

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2013

Level City or Town

State(s) New Mexico

Source City of Albuquerque

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance requires all requests for proposals to submit pay equity metrics for employees and gender pay data to review the deviation between salaries for men and women....

Wage Theft

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2016

Level County

State(s) All States

Source State Innovation Exchange

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Children & Families

Wage theft is a catchall term for a range of situations in which an employer fails to pay an employee, and it can take many forms - from employers paying employees less than the minimum wage or failing to pay overtime to withholding tips, not providing employees with their final paycheck,...

Build a Better South: Construction Working Conditions in the Southern U.S.

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2017

Level City or Town

State(s) Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

Source Partnership for Working Families

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Public Safety, Health

As construction activity in the southern United States continues to flourish, concern over workers’ health and safety grows. Economic hardships, few or no opportunities for career advancement, unstable work, injuries, and even death on the job are commonplace for construction workers...

2012 Albuquerque Ordinance 12-2006 Establishing a Minimum Wage

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2012

Level City or Town

State(s) New Mexico

Source City of Albuquerque

Policy Areas Economic Justice

This ordinance establishes a minimum wage in the City of Albuquerque....

Los Angeles Ordinance No. 178084

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2019

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source City of Los Angeles

Policy Areas Economic Justice

Hotels in the LAX area have instituted the practice of adding a "service charge" of 15% to 20% of the bill for banquets and other large group events. Some hotels pass a portion of the service charge to the workers who actually performed the services, while other hotels retain the...

ProGov21 Policy Library

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