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More than $500,000 returned to over 400 North Country workers who were victims of wage theft

Posted 7/20/17

More than half a million dollars has been returned to 416 workers in the North Country who were victims of wage theft between January and June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office reported Wednesday. The …

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More than $500,000 returned to over 400 North Country workers who were victims of wage theft

Posted

More than half a million dollars has been returned to 416 workers in the North Country who were victims of wage theft between January and June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office reported Wednesday.

The multi-agency state Exploited Workers Task Force, created in 2015, says $505,000 was returned to workers from employers “who cheat their workers out of what they're rightfully owed," Cuomo said.

That money is the share of money returned to North Country workers, out of the total tally of $14.8 million returned to 21,271 victims of wage theft statewide since January.

According to the press release, some of the most common ways employers steal wages include:

• paying tips only

• paying a day rate for work performed that is sub-minimum wage when hours worked are counted

• not paying an overtime rate for hours worked over 40 in a payroll week

• not paying for travel time between work assignments in the same day

• withholding final paychecks

• not paying for "training" time

• charging employees for required uniforms or equipment.