Texas workers have long struggled with wage theft by their employers—and the state’s willingness and ability to crack down on scofflaw employers has been relatively minimal. Now, rates of suspected wage theft are increasing, and the state labor law enforcement system is straining to keep up.
Last year, state investigators faced the highest number of paycheck complaints in nine years and a prior internal audit noted that it typically took months just for complaints to be assigned to an investigator.
“The current system is failing workers in that it’s too slow, especially with many Texans living paycheck to paycheck,” said Sean Goldhammer, director of employment and legal services at the Workers Defense Project, a statewide member-led group that advocates for immigrant workers.
