WA employees are owed $5.4M in stolen wages

Washington workers lose millions of dollars each year to wage theft: They’re just not paid for work they did.

A new investigation from the Seattle Times finds many of those workers aren’t getting their money back, in part because of challenges with our state’s department of Labor and Industries. The total amount owed since 2018 is $5.4 million.

Seattle Times journalists Taylor Blatchford and Jackie Varriano break their investigation down for us today.

Jackie and Taylor's piece: seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/wage-theft-victims-are-owed-5-4-million-that-wa-hasnt-collected/

Resources for workers and employers: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/what-to-know-about-wage-theft-and-workers-rights-in-wa/

We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. You have the power! Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/seattlenow

And we want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram at SeattleNowPod, or leave us feedback online: https://www.kuow.org/feedback