by DC Jobs with Justice | Nov 11, 2008 | Campaigns, Wage Theft
This week Interfaith Worker Justice founder and director Kim Bobo launches her new book, “Wage Theft in America,” which examines the crime wave no one talks aboutĀ — how billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year. We interviewed her to find out more: DC JwJ: What motivated you to write a book about wage theft? Kim Bobo: Interfaith Worker Justice supports a network of 20 workers centers places where workers who are having problems in their workplaces and are not represented by unions can learn about their rights in the workplace and can join with others to address their problems. The number one issue the workers centers deal with is wage theft workers not getting paid for all their work. I became aware of the breadth of the problem through the workers centers. I also became aware of how frustrated the workers centers were with the Department of Labor’s lack of responsiveness to the problems reported by workers centers and the seeming inability or unwillingness of the DOL leadership to adequately address the crisis of wage theft. rnrnInitially, I planned to write a short monograph offering a new vision for the Department of Labor, but as I began writing I realized that I had to explain why we needed a new vision for the Department of Labor. I started by explaining the crisis of wage theft; then some of my colleagues wanted me to explain how and why wage theft occurs. Pretty soon I had a whole book on wage theft. DC JwJ: The Washington Lawyers’Committee for Civil...
