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San Francisco Workers, Supervisors & Worker Centers Propose Relief for Workers Denied Their Rightful Wages
Worker Justice Fund invests in the people who make San Francisco run
SAN FRANCISCO – Amid rising costs of living and more and more people struggling to make ends meet, San Francisco workers, Supervisors, and local worker centers and community groups, including the Bay Area Essential Workers Alliance (BAEWA), Asian Law Caucus, and Legal Aid at Work announced a citywide proposal, the Worker Justice Fund, to provide relief to workers who have been denied their rightful wages.
San Francisco has led the nation in protections for working families, including paid parental leave, a $18.67/hour minimum wage, and protections against wage theft. The City’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement has a 97% success rate in recovering unpaid wages for workers. Yet some workers are still left without repair or recourse when a business violates labor laws and then closes, the employer runs out of money, or the employer needs years to pay back what they owe.
Under the proposed solution championed by Supervisor Hillary Ronen, San Francisco, a city home to billionaires and Fortune 500 companies, can make progress towards a basic yet unfulfilled promise: workers should be paid the full wages they are owed. At a rally today in front of City Hall, San Franciscans emphasized that to have a healthy and equitable city, we must do right by the people who are paid the least.
“The Worker Justice Fund means that San Francisco has our backs. It means that when the employer fails or bails, it shouldn’t be the worker who has to swallow the loss,” said Huang Qiming, who moved to SF from China in 2013 and was a dishwasher at Paramount Superstar Restaurant. He has been waiting for wages he and his former co-workers are owed since the beginning of 2023 and would benefit from the proposed relief. “My colleagues and I worked very hard. Like any worker, we expected to be paid what we were owed and treated fairly. Unfortunately, our employer started withholding our pay and by the time the restaurant closed, they owed me more than $10,000 and I’m still waiting. I urge the Board of Supervisors to pass the Worker Justice Fund, so that San Francisco can ensure that working families like mine can still put food on the table, care for our children, and stay in our neighborhoods.”
Research shows that wage theft is still a major issue for working people in California and the Bay Area, especially in the service industry and other low-wage fields. A recent Rutgers University report found that almost 14% of San Francisco-area workers were paid below the minimum wage in 2014-2023.
“I was a former Burger King worker who, like many of my peers, was told we would get a settlement payment from wages owed. Many of our families during the wait for justice had accrued debt and had very little money to cover expenses,’ said former Burger King employee Adriana Rendon, an organizer with Trabajadores Unidos Workers United (TUWU) which is a member of the Bay Area Essential Workers Alliance. “What sounded like a victory to get some of what was owed to us after many years of trying to get restitution became a small payout extended over 10 years that would never cover the debt or financial losses our families had to absorb. It's a disgrace that those who are most affected economically, the workers, are the ones left to front the financial bill of employers. Our families have suffered enough. We should not have to wait another 7 years with no guarantee that our wages will be finally paid.”
“Over the years, we have helped restaurant workers, construction workers, janitorial workers, and caregivers in San Francisco win judgments and findings upholding their right to their full wages,” said Mei Mei Chan, a community advocate for workers’ rights with the Asian Law Caucus. “At times, however, workers are unable to actually collect the money they’re owed because their employer has gone under or disappeared, but their rent and medical bills are still due. The Worker Justice Fund is an important step we can take right now to affirm San Francisco is committed to being a city where working people are protected and not left holding the bag.”
“Across America, low-wage workers are usually the most exploited,” said San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen, the lead sponsor of the legislation. “Greedy employers target and hire these workers, who are usually low-income immigrants and people of color, for wage theft precisely because low-wage workers have less power in the workplace. Today, with this ordinance, San Francisco is stepping up and letting workers across our City know that we have their back. We are doing everything in our power to ensure our workers receive their rightful and hard-earned wages, and I am proud that as a City we are once again leading on workers’ rights, especially for our most vulnerable workers.”
The Worker Justice Fund would be administered by the City to ensure restitution to workers who have received a City determination or judgment that the employer violated San Francisco’s labor laws, yet the employer is unable to pay what they owe for one reason or another. Relief for denied wages will be covered by penalties collected by the City for labor law violations, as well as funds collected by OLSE that have remained unclaimed by owed workers for years.
“As an attorney representing some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable workers, I’ve seen courageous workers speak up and put their time and energy into fighting for fairness.” said Alexx Campbell, an attorney at Legal Aid at Work. “For workers who achieve a decision from the City confirming that their rights were violated by their employer, we need to make sure they can be made whole. The Worker Justice Fund is a creative solution aimed at making our values of fairness and equity for all workers a reality.”
The Bay Area Essential Workers Alliance is a coalition of six worker centers representing immigrant working people and working people of color in the Bay Area: Chinese Progressive Association, Filipino Advocates for Justice, Filipino Community Center, Mission Action, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and Trabajadores Unidos Workers United.