On Tuesday, April 9, 2019, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos introduced Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul at a hearing for the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The hearing focused on combating “wage theft”–when workers are not awarded the wages they rightfully earned on the job–and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) duty to enforce the law. In 2015 and 2016, $2 billion was recovered for workers across the Country who were victims of wage theft, but the problem is much larger. Estimates show that low-wage workers lost more than $50 billion to wage theft in 2016 alone.
Congresswoman Bustos has long been a champion for workers and, [the week before], admonished Secretary Alexander Acosta for using the DOL to attack unions and undermine worker protections.
“
I was proud to welcome Attorney General Raoul to the House Appropriations Committee today to discuss this critical issue facing our workers,” said Congresswoman Bustos, a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. “From his time as a young lawyer and in the State Legislature, Attorney General Raoul has been a strong voice for workers. The United States Congress can learn from Illinois’ proud tradition of organized labor and support for workers who are victims of wage theft. We can never back down in our fight for higher wages, worker protections, and a Department of Labor that stands up for workers, not just corporations.”
“My office fields hundreds of complaints from working people across Illinois who don’t know how they will pay their rent or feed their families, because they have not been paid all of their wages,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said.
“Not only is this unfair to workers, it harms other businesses that do comply with wage laws, by making them less able to compete.”
To watch Congresswoman Bustos’ introduction click here.