Texas workers aren’t getting paid

An academic study has revealed a troubling trend: 3 million Texas workers paid less than minimum wage, and $99 million in judgments from the Texas Workforce Commission that are essentially being ignored by employers. For Texas to attract the workforce it needs, those numbers must improve.

A study by Rutgers University’s Workplace Justice Lab@RU, in partnership with the Workers Defense Project, revealed that wage theft — the practice of withholding wages already earned — has cost Texas workers at least $12 billion over the past 14 years. Most disheartening, even workers whose complaints are upheld by the Texas Workforce Commission don’t always get what they earned. When the agency verifies a case of stolen wages, its judgment is called “ordered wages.” More than 39,000 cases of ordered wages haven’t been paid, the study found.

The problem is almost certainly bigger than those numbers depict. Many workers are reluctant to file claims, preferring to avoid scrutiny or possible retaliation. Those who do can’t always navigate the red tape or prove their case.

What’s clearly broken is the low collection rate even for those cases where wage theft is verified. According to the report, 80% of wages ordered by the Texas Workforce Commission between 2010 and 2020 have gone uncollected.

The agency disputes some of the report’s findings. It supplied some of the data Rutgers used, which show the rate of uncollected ordered wages between 2010 and 2020 to be half as large as Rutgers reported: 42%, not 80%. It’s unclear what led to the difference. But that number is still too large. It represents $42.5 million owed to Texas workers.

The agency says it uses multiple enforcement mechanisms, including fines, bank freezes and liens. Indeed, the Rutgers study found that the Texas Workforce Commission has 10,000 active liens with delinquency amounts totaling a potential $113 million. A public list of those liens larger than $2,000 includes more than 500 employers with Dallas addresses. But that doesn’t appear to be fixing the problem.

Commission spokeswoman Angela Woellner wrote in an email: “TWC pursues all collections actions available to us, but there are circumstances which prevent successful recovery of unpaid wages. For example, unscrupulous employers can hide bank accounts and other assets to avoid liens and levies. Employers can file bankruptcy or walk away from their business, which stays our collection efforts.”

All of this suggests an enforcement gap that needs to be filled. If you fail to pay parking tickets, you wind up with an arrest warrant that limits your ability to renew your driver’s license, get a job, get a loan and other things. Similar consequences should follow employers who don’t pay their workers. Business loans, bank accounts and bankruptcies should all be out of reach for perpetrators of wage theft.

The job market is already challenging for employers. Unscrupulous businesses that make employment riskier are making things harder for all Texas businesses. If our economy is going to keep pace with explosive population growth, we need employment in our state to be protected, predictable and profitable. We’ve got to do more to prevent wage theft.

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