From prepping ingredients, to stocking shelves, to caregiving, working people are making it possible for countless others to go about their days and sustain close-knit communities. Yet across California, millions of working families are fighting to survive rising costs and unacceptable inequality. While cities like San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles have taken important steps to enact a higher minimum wage and paid sick leave, there’s still much more to do to create a state where working people can thrive.
Many of our clients are family members and neighbors at the forefront of local and state campaigns for their community’s economic well-being, which includes a fair return on their labor. Whether they work at a restaurant, nail salon, or in home healthcare, workers’ paychecks should reflect the full amount they are owed - without exception.
It’s a basic premise, but not yet reality. Wage theft is pervasive in industries that pay the least, such as the restaurant and construction industries. Workers in the Bay Area on average were not paid more than $4,300 annually because their employer violated our region’s minimum wage laws.
There are a lot of risks to taking action against these injustices. Each year, we defend people who have faced retaliation from their employer because they fought for their full wages or organized with their coworkers for their right to make a living. And still, many are resolute in doing what is right.
Workers and members of the Workers Rights Community Collaborative rallied in July to raise awareness of San Francisco’s updated minimum wage. Annually Bay Area workers on average are not paid more than $4,300 because their employer violated minimum wage laws.
It’s why San Franciscans last month joined with local groups and elected officials to introduce the Worker Justice Fund, which would provide relief to workers who are denied their rightful wages.
In addition to citywide solutions, people like Sabir and Veronica are also learning their rights and mobilizing with their coworkers to get paid their full paychecks, uphold labor rights, and inspire more dignity on the job.
Sabir: ‘At the end of day, you have to put a roof over your head and feed your child.’
Sabir liked going to work at a restaurant in South San Francisco. He liked his coworkers and meeting interesting customers most evenings. After a year into the job, Sabir noticed that despite frequently working more than 8 hours a day, he wasn’t getting paid overtime. He raised the issue with management, and they offered him a pay increase. His manager also told Sabir not to discuss his pay with his coworkers who were similarly not getting paid for overtime.
But Sabir ended up telling his coworkers. He remembers thinking, “It doesn’t benefit me to not tell them. There’s this idea that discussing pay with workers is illegal or frowned upon. There is no shame and you should always be as transparent about pay and hours with coworkers as possible.”
Former restaurant worker Sabir speaks at a rally in Fruitvale. His employer at the time did not pay Sabir or his coworkers overtime, and Sabir decided to file a claim with the California Labor Commissioner’s office.
Distressingly, unpaid overtime was not the only issue. Some workers received their paychecks late on more than one occasion. Sabir eventually left the restaurant, but not before talking to his coworkers about how they could file a wage theft claim together with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office.
He came away from that experience with a clearer understanding of his labor and its value. He says, “Wage theft is the largest form of theft but it’s not talked about that way. Be on top of knowing what you’re entitled to as a worker. Don’t feel as though asking for what you’re owed, is you being entitled or greedy.”
With help from Asian Law Caucus staff, Sabir ultimately filed a claim to recover his unpaid wages and is in the process of settling with his former employer. Now, Sabir is pursuing a longtime interest in nature as a plant science student. He’s also a parent to an infant. “As a new father, I think about money more. At the end of day, you have to put a roof over your head and feed your child.”
Veronica: ‘I knew there were rights but I doubted whether they truly applied to me.’
For Veronica, problems at a local sandwich chain began surfacing when she observed that she wasn’t getting consistent breaks or paid for sick time. When she asked why her sick time was missing from her paycheck, Veronica understood management’s vague responses to mean she did not have sick time. “It wasn’t an open environment for me to ask all my coworkers for this information,” she remembers.
Recently arrived from El Salvador, Veronica had worked in the kitchen at the sandwich shop for a year and a half before realizing that management did not treat all the staff equally. While some staff were taking up to 30 minute breaks, Veronica and her other coworkers were often unable to catch their breath.
Veronica, a Tenderloin resident, was unable to take scheduled breaks or take paid sick leave at the restaurant where she worked. Her employer fired her after she spoke up about her rights. With the help of Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, Veronica was able to get her job back and improve the conditions at her workplace.
Veronica cares for her 16 year old son and sends money to her mother back in El Salvador. She knows many immigrants fear losing their jobs if they speak up for themselves, but that didn’t stop her from advocating for herself. In response, she heard indirect threats from management, who told her once to “go complain, go see what the consequences are.”
The day after Veronica’s manager fired her, she attended a workers’ rights presentation held by Trabajadores Unidos Workers United (TUWU) at the Tenderloin shelter where she lives. With other shelter residents, Veronica sat through the talk and realized, “I knew there were rights but I doubted whether the ones regarding 10 minute breaks and sick time truly applied to me because I’m an immigrant. I left more clear about my rights as an immigrant and a worker in this country.”
Walking around her neighborhood, Veronica had previously run into outreach staff from TUWU, which works across San Francisco to help people learn their labor rights and fight against worker exploitation. After the presentation, Veronica decided to explain her situation to TUWU staff and see if they could help. TUWU walked Veronica through her options, and initially, Veronica worried about what would happen to her employer and whether she even wanted to return to an unfair workplace.
Veronica eventually decided it was important to fight and get her job back. With TUWU’s help, she wrote a letter to her employer and talked to the Labor Commissioner’s Office. Within two weeks, she was reinstated at the sandwich shop and received back pay.
San Francisco workers, community members, and elected officials gathered outside City Hall in September to introduce the Workers Justice Fund, which would provide relief to workers who are denied their rightful wages.
After Veronica won her claim, sick leave started appearing on the paychecks at the sandwich shop and some of her former coworkers reached out to thank her. She decided to leave her job and find work somewhere else, but she feels more equipped to defend herself when she walks into a new workplace. “We feel like, as workers, we’re on our own and that we don’t feel protected,” shared Veronica. But still, even for people who are afraid, she says, “There is strength in raising their voice and to raise awareness of their rights as humans, as immigrants, as people.”