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Tampa Bay Democrats ramping up wage theft laws

 
“Bad businesses will have to think twice about stealing wages in St. Petersburg,” City Council member Darden Rice says.
“Bad businesses will have to think twice about stealing wages in St. Petersburg,” City Council member Darden Rice says.
Published March 18, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG— Local Tampa Bay Democrats, supported by unions, are pushing ordinances to intervene when employees say an employer has shorted their pay. The proposals are the exact kind of local "wage theft" ordinances that Republicans and retail groups have sought unsuccessfully to outlaw in Tallahassee, saying they place an unfair burden on business.

"Wage theft" (or, from an employer's perspective, "wage disputes") is shorthand for a wide range of workplace misery, including employers who don't pay overtime, who force employees to perform work off the clock or, sometimes, who don't pay them at all. Undocumented workers, for example, are often targeted, as are other low-wage workers in fast-food and other restaurants, and retailers.

In one recent study, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties both ranked among the state's worst when it comes to the problem.

Now St. Petersburg City Council member Darden Rice, with the help of the Service Employees International Union, is pushing a proposed ordinance before the St. Petersburg City Council. Unions have also been involved in the Hillsborough County Commission effort. Pinellas County commissioners also have pledged action soon.

The St. Petersburg council discussed wage theft before a packed council chamber last month and will tackle it again in a committee meeting on March 26. Earlier this month, the Hillsborough County Commission voted to have county attorneys draft a wage theft ordinance for their consideration.

"Bad businesses will have to think twice about stealing wages in St. Petersburg," Rice said. Her proposal would allow claims to be heard by a city administrative hearing officer, who could award up to three times the amount in unpaid wages. The city's administrative costs would be largely offset by fines.

Supporters hope that financial stick lures recalcitrant employers to the table.

"What I love about this ordinance is that it really incentivizes mediation," said Rice, who learned about the wage theft issue at a recent conference in Minneapolis.

Rice's measure is modeled on a Miami-Dade County ordinance that has recovered $5.8 million since 2010, when it became the first county in the country to enact such an ordinance.

Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch said the County Commission will take up a similar effort soon. "It fits in with what the county is prioritizing in terms of economic opportunity and poverty reduction," Welch said.

Some Hillsborough County commissioners expressed concern about costs and big government. But Commissioner Kevin Beckner, who introduced an initiative there, said that costs would be minimal and that county officials will conduct a cost analysis.

The Miami-Dade model doesn't appeal to many Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee who prefer a Palm Beach County strategy that pays outside legal counsel to take claims to court.

Past efforts in the Legislature have included limiting the statue of limitations to one year and prohibiting punitive damages and repayment of attorney's fees.

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"I don't like calling it 'wage theft.' 'Wage dispute' is what I'd call it," said state Rep. Neil Combee, an Auburndale Republican who has been among those lawmakers in recent years to have championed the failed effort to pass a statewide policy that would keep these complaints in court. "The idea of having the same rules from Pensa­cola to Key West makes an awful lot of sense."

Combee said he didn't run another bill this year, although after learning of the recent political momentum in Tampa Bay, he said: "Sounds like maybe I should have."

The Retail Federation of Florida, which has worked with Combee and other lawmakers, is also standing down this year.

"After supporting a wage theft bill each year for the past four years with nothing passing, FRF isn't proposing anything in 2015," said James Miller, the group's spokesman.

The federation still thinks a state law is the best solution, as many of its members have operations in several counties and it would be cumbersome and expensive for employers to track and abide by multiple local ordinances, Miller wrote in an email.

Some of the previous statewide efforts made it too cumbersome for workers and discouraged them from pursuing wage claims, Rice said.

A Florida International University study analyzing U.S. Department of Labor data from 2008 to 20011 found Hillsborough ranked second in the state in wage theft violations. Pinellas was fourth. Together, more than $5 million was recovered in that period.

The federal government enforces many types of wage theft, but inspectors are scarce. The state has no enforcement mechanism, the report stated.

Samantha Thurlow knows this firsthand. She worked as a server and bartender for about five months at a Treasure Island bar and grill. The owners paid her in cash and shorted her about $1,000 before she finally quit in January. They stiffed other employees as well, she said.

Her co-workers were resigned to the situation, but Thurlow, 44, who has worked in restaurants for nearly 30 years, refused to give in.

"I … started calling everyone I could think of," she said. No one could help.

That's why she became involved in the issue after seeing a friend's post on Facebook about wage theft.

"There was nothing anyone could do about it," she said.

Times staff writer William R. Levesque contributed to this report. Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8459. Follow @CharlieFrago.