Overworked Americans And Rampant Wage Theft

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth published a few graphs last month that illustrated just how much Americans are overworked. In almost every industry, at least 20% of workers are putting in over 40 hours a week and 10% of workers put in over 45 hours a week. The percentage of people in legal and management who work over 40 hours is close to 40% and 30% work more than 45 hours. But those particular groups also tend to be quite well paid. That is not the case in plenty of the other industries listed.

What’s more interesting is to look at the second graph they present that shows the relationship between the hours worked and hourly wages:

As you might expect, hourly wages increase as the number of hours worked increases. But, as the report states, “after the 40-hour threshold, the return of additional hours of work – higher hourly wages – isn’t clear.” This also suggests that American businesses are getting hours and hours of free labor from workers putting in over 40 hours a week. In fact, one estimate puts the total amount of wage theft in the United States at between $40 and $60 BILLION per year. As a comparison, this is two to three times the amount of money lost to robbery, burglary, larceny, and auto theft COMBINED in the United States each year. That’s why the Obama’s Labor Department rules on raising the salary cutoff for overtime pay is so important. It will help make sure that all those extra hours are actually compensated.

But, as we saw earlier today, wage theft involves more than just not paying for overtime. It would be nice if our government actually started to treat it like the serious crime that it really is. And is it any wonder that hard-working Americans no longer believe the system is working for them.