Retailers stole $15 billion from their employers, while shoplifters stole about $14.7 billion from retailers, according to a new report. Amy Traub, a research for Demos, a national progressive-policy organization, tells us she learned in a recent report retailers underpaid or skimped on wages worth $15 billion between 2013 and 2015 while shoplifters stole $14.7 billion in merchandise each of those years
“This seems like it should really be a bipartisan issue. We should all be united – especially a president who campaigned on doing the right thing for working Americans – around ensuring that employers don’t steal money out of their employees’ paychecks.”
Last year, a bill was introduced in Congress to tighten wage theft laws. The “Wage Theft Prevention and Wage Recovery Act” would compensate wage victims with three times their stolen wages, increase civil fines for repeat offenders, and make it easier for employees to act on wage theft. It has stalled completely.
