Around 14,000 SF workers get stiffed by wage theft every year. Supervisor Hillary Ronen just introduced one of her last proposals before she leaves office, which would be a $500,000-a-year fund to pay workers who never got paid by their employers.
Wage theft in San Francisco, primarily wage theft committed against immigrant and low-wage workers, has been seen everywhere from Burger King to high-end steakhouses, and anything in between. Even the celebrated Burma Superstar chain was forced to settle a $1.3 million wage theft case in 2020. The latest annual report from the SF Office of Labor Standards Enforcement that enforces wage theft law says it collected “$20 million in restitution collected for 14,094 workers.” That’s in just one year, and the number of workers getting hit by wage theft is likely much higher.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who’s got only about three more months in office before being termed out, is trying to do something about it. The Chronicle reported Tuesday morning that Ronen would be propose a city fund to pay wage theft victims, and she did just that at this afternoon’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
If passed, it would be called the Worker Justice Fund. The fund would prioritize workers who had won wage-theft rulings, but still had not been paid because their employer filed for bankruptcy, was out of money, or simply fled the Bay Area
“The fund would be among the first of its kind in the country, and will provide relief to low-wage workers who have been denied their hard-earned wages,” Ronen said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. “These workers are victims of crime, yet unlike other crime victims, we don't have restitution in place for them.”
The proposed budget would be about $500,000 a year, and it does not sound like this fund would funded by taxpayer money. Ronen said the fund would be administered by the aforementioned Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, and paid for using future penalties they collect. Money would also come from unclaimed money in existing worker support funds.
Ronen added that she has Supervisors Aaron Peskin, Dean Preston, and Shamann Walton lined up as co-sponsors. So with Ronen’s vote, that’s four votes. But it would need six votes to pass the board (and would also need Mayor Breed’s signature), so we’ll see what the support for it looks like when the legislation is formally written up and introduced.
Image: SFGovTV
