Waging Justice for Exploited Workers
Echoing Green's seed funding launched the Wage Justice Center in September 2007. Using innovative legal theories and legal tools borrowed from commercial collections law, the Wage Justice Center has collected millions of dollars in back wages and penalties owed to low-income workers. Most of these back wages were collected in cases that community groups, legal
aid attorneys, and the State of California had long written off—cases involving the sort of highly unscrupulous and exploitative business that are rampant in the underground economy. Innovative Wage-Collection Strategies
Effective wage theft collection approaches rely on expertise in commercial law, business/corporations law, and the law of remedies. Commercial collections cases, brought by suppliers or funders against these same businesses, do result in compensation for the aggrieved party. The Wage Justice Center gives low-income workers the same power to collect their wages that commercial entities have collect their claims against other businesses. Ultimately, the Wage Justice Center seeks reformation in the law (through strategic litigation and policy advocacy) to recognize a privileged claim by workers to collect unpaid wages against the businesses’ (and the business owners’) funds and assets that were accumulated, in large part, by these workers’ sweat. By developing new strategies to enforce wage rights and educate workers, advocates and the public, the Wage Justice Center empowers long-abused workers to assert their basic rights and collecting unpaid wages from employers who have previously escaped consequences for illegally underpaying their employees. Long-Term Impact
The Wage Justice Center can affect the lives of many more workers, and significantly address the overwhelming need by working to create a permanent long-term solution. To accomplish this, we build on our collaborative campaign work and expands educational training and outreach to workers, attorneys, community advocates and the public. To breathe life into workers’ basic economic rights, the Wage Justice Center must train and build a network of attorneys, advocates and workers that are able to effectively utilize the legal tools and strategies necessary to collect unpaid wages.
