Dear Friend,
Yesterday, DC Jobs With Justice and our partners learned that we had won a victory for workers and government accountability.
Throughout our history, DC JWJ has fought to end wage theft through corporate campaigns, better laws, and stronger enforcement. We have helped win some of the strongest laws in the country. We know these laws are only as good as the enforcement that makes sure all employers actually play by the rules.
Because of our Wage Theft and Just Pay campaigns, DC's Department of Employment Services (DOES) has the responsibility to protect all workers from wage theft. In the case of tipped workers - including restaurant workers - all employers are required to demonstrate to DOES that all tipped workers are ultimately making the full minimum wage when you include tips. This information is then supposed to be reported out to the DC Council quarterly. Unfortunately, DOES has never provided this information to the Council or the public.
Employers are required to make workers whole if tips do not reach an average hourly rate of $15. DOES is required to hold employers accountable if they don't do that. But no one could tell if that was really happening.
DC JWJ, along with Chris Bangs from Metro DSA and lawyers from MurphyAnderson PLLC, used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to access these documents. The responses we got were incomplete, disorganized, and ultimately DOES argued they did not have to provide full, usable information. Yesterday, a judge sided with us and required DOES provide the comprehensive information in compliance with our FOIA request.
Why is this important? This data is about accountability. It will inform us if employers are preventing or perpetuating wage theft. It will also allow us to understand what DOES does when they learn a company is out of compliance. Restaurants and moving companies are among the top sectors for wage theft - along with construction and home health care. We need to pay special attention to these tipped sectors.
The tipped minimum wage is unfair, but it is still operational in DC. As long as that is true, we need to see that workers making the tipped minimum are not actually having wages stolen.
DC JWJ will continue our fight to identify and end wage theft across DC. Will you join us? Your contribution supports more than a decade of work to win and enforce strong labor laws, and a chance to see what we can do with all this new FOIA data. Give today.
In solidarity,
Elizabeth Falcon
Executive Director
DC Jobs With Justice
she/her
