Today, Documented released the newest generation of its Wage Theft Monitor initiative with a new website, interactive database and expanded data set. This work builds on the initial iteration of the project launched in 2023 that makes public over 35,000 proven claims of wage theft filed with the New York State and Federal Departments of Labor. This data represents the stories of more than 350,000 workers whose wages were found to have been stolen by employers. Over $1 billion in wages are stolen from workers in New York State each year, according to estimates, and immigrant workers are among the most vulnerable.
The newly updated Wage Theft Monitor includes data from 2012 into 2024 and introduces new functions and features, including a searchable and exportable database and a ranked list of worst offenders. The redesign, by New York-based design studio CHIPS, allows users to sort and customize claims by original search parameters, date, geography across New York State and by hundreds of industries – including retail, construction, hospitality and health care. These claims cover small and local businesses to major Fortune 500 companies, and range from stolen wages of hundreds of dollars to millions. The database is now available in Spanish and Chinese to allow more workers directly impacted by wage theft to use it.
Documented intends for a range of stakeholders to have the opportunity to make use of the data – including newsrooms, academic institutions, policymakers, nonprofits, advocates, labor enforcement organizations and most importantly, impacted workers.
Potential use cases for the Monitor include:
- Academics can use the Monitor to conduct research invested in workers’ rights and labor movements.
- Journalists and newsrooms can use the Monitor to drive region-specific investigations and features on wage theft, helping to promote accountability in their locale or community.
- Individual workers can use the Monitor to avoid an exploitative employer, confirm suspicions and to share their stories, helping to caution others.
- Workforce development organizations can ensure that newly placed workers are aware of past offenses and know their rights.
- The general public can use the Monitor to become better-informed, ethical consumers/patrons.
Immigrant workers, who are often unfamiliar with workplace rules, are especially vulnerable to wage theft. In New York City, approximately 44% of workers are immigrants of all statuses, many working in fields such as construction, healthcare and hospitality – industries with a disproportionate share of employer violations, including wage theft.
‘We hope different groups will use the Wage Theft Monitor as a jumping off point to pursue their own research and investigations,’ said Max Siegelbaum, Documented’s Special Projects and Investigations Editor. ‘This work comes at a time when those most susceptible to it – including low wage workers, immigrants and workers of color – are especially vulnerable to workplace exploitation.’
The Wage Theft Monitor initiative began in 2018 in direct response to conversations with local worker centers, worker cooperatives and labor organizations that identified wage theft as a top issue for immigrant workers in the city. Documented was able to secure the data from the Department of Labor following a years-long process and Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) lawsuit supported by The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic. In 2023, Documented released the Wage Theft Monitor as an interactive map with limited search capability followed by a series of in depth investigations spurred by the data in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network.Documented will be hosting a webinar on Tuesday, February 25 at 2 p.m. est to walk people and organizations through the database and its functionality with an opportunity for questions. To join the webinar, click HERE.
