Wage theft is a catch-all term for when employers don’t pay their workers, underpay workers, or fail to provide overtime or sick time pay. In 2019 alone, an estimated $394 million has been stolen from more than 1,000 individuals in Massachusetts - and that number continues to skyrocket.
The Attorney General’s Office is responsible for combating wage theft in the state, and Attorney General Maura Healey has made combating wage theft a centerpiece of her second term.
But without access to wage theft case documents, we have very little insight into how Healey’s office is dealing with employers that steal wages.
To understand how the Massachusetts government is dealing with wage theft, MuckRock requested files on the AG’s investigations into four companies that have allegedly stolen wages from their workers. The AGO estimated that the processing and reproduction fees for these files will be $200.
We’re opening the request to crowdfund - every donation helps, so please spread the word, and be on the lookout for similar requests for other counties as their responses come in.
Donate below or via the request page, and thanks for your continued support.
Image via Massachusetts Attorney General’s Facebook
