No, I think the mechanism is utterly broken. I just dont think the severity of charges are the bottleneck in the problem.
People should be encouraged to file, and the courts should have hearing within a reasonable timeframe, and do so efficiently.
The bottleneck is that the state does a terrible job of handling claims. califonia has an average wait time of 505 days for a hearing for people who dont drop or settle their claim. Under these conditions, most people will continue to not file claims. Especially when only 1 in 7 people that win in court actually get paid.
It doesn't help that the california government is grossly inefficient. The labor commission budget is >160 million, and issues ~50 million in judgements, of which only ~20% actually get paid. So we are talking about a program that costs 1600% more to run than the judgements it hands out.
> The bottleneck is that the state does a terrible job of handling claims.
That's not the only bottleneck. You also need to have the time and resources to pursue this, and it has to be worth your time. If your employer stole $500 from you, but it will cost you $1000 to get those wages back, it's not worth pursuing it in court. And the cost can be in terms of time that you spend on it.
A lot of wage theft is very small amounts that are individually rarely worth pursuing. They also waste a lot of government resources too, for the same reason.
So maybe individual wage theft shouldn't be a strict liability crime, but at some level, it should rise to criminal charges being brought against the management of the company. If a bunch of your employees have reported wage theft against you, and all you have to do is potentially pay them back just what you stole (as you point out, it's not even a given you'd have to pay it back) -- why would you _not_ skim a bit of your employees wages? Add in a very long statute of limitations for wage theft (say 10 years at a minimum) and the chance for management to spend 5-10 years in the clink, I suspect wage theft will decrease quite a bit.
that still doesnt solve the problem that you have to prove they stole wages (intended or otherwise).
Intent isnt a requirement to get a judgement in california, and it IS a crime.
It still takes >500 days to just get a determination that wages are owed (theft intended or not).
Most people cant prove wage theft with evidence the day it happens, let alone 10 years down the road.
Most police departments barely bother with armed robbery and auto theft. They have no legal obligation to pursue criminals. Where do you think investigating wage theft cases with flimsy evidence will rank on their priorities?
I stand by my position that the only way to improve things is ensure speedy case resolution. Make it likely employers will actually be caught and have a reasonable criminal punishment.
US criminal law isnt really set up to hand out enormous punishments just to make examples of people. 10 years in the clink for stealing $500 wages would be cruel and unusual punishment.
What I am suggesting _is_ to have a speedy investigation, that is up-front paid by the accused employer. Force the employer to pay for hiring/engaging people to quickly investigate the case.
And no, I have no problem with forcing employers to prove their innocence instead of the other way around. There's no reason to treat business and natural persons the same way.
People should be encouraged to file, and the courts should have hearing within a reasonable timeframe, and do so efficiently.
The bottleneck is that the state does a terrible job of handling claims. califonia has an average wait time of 505 days for a hearing for people who dont drop or settle their claim. Under these conditions, most people will continue to not file claims. Especially when only 1 in 7 people that win in court actually get paid.
It doesn't help that the california government is grossly inefficient. The labor commission budget is >160 million, and issues ~50 million in judgements, of which only ~20% actually get paid. So we are talking about a program that costs 1600% more to run than the judgements it hands out.
How's that for depressing.
https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/09/california-...