The garment industry is notorious for rampant wage theft, contributing to L.A.s recognition as wage theft capital of the world. Silvia Rivera, garment worker and member of Koreatown Immigrant Worker Alliance (KIWA), an organization that advocates for workers rights. Photo courtesy of UCLA Labor Center.
Months passed and Hilda Lopez and her coworkers still hadn't received all of their back pay. As a garment worker, Lopez was paid the minimum wage to sew jeans and t-shirts for pricey name brands her company contracted with, but after two months of not receiving any pay and promises of being paid next week , Lopez and her coworkers filed a complaint with the California Labor Commissioners Office.
One day we showed up to work and everything was gone. They had locked the doors and we looked inside and they took the all equipment too. We never got paid, said Lopez. During the months-long wage-theft investigation, the owner of the company filed for bankruptcy and Lopez and her coworkers lost all chance of receiving their pay.
After her experience, Lopez started organizing around wage-theft and workers' rights, eventually leading her to get involved in the movement to raise the minimum wage. She was one of hundreds of workers that packed into city hall last June, the day the Los Angeles city council voted to raise the minimum wage to $15. Lopez and other advocates saw it as a victory for workers, but one hurdle remained: making sure it would be enforced.
We've gotten the increase, but we need to make sure it's enforced because what's the point of raising the minimum wage if the people arent even get the wages they're already working for? said Scarlett De Leon, a political organizer with the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance.
The increase in the minimum wage brings a decline in worker turnover, saving money in terms of the hiring and training process. It improves productivity which absorbs part of the costs.Ken Jacobs, Chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
The City's move to raise the minimum wage is part of a larger trend in cities and counties to take the issue of poverty into their own hands. Seattle, San Francisco and Pittsburgh have all passed similar ordinances. Following the City's move, Los Angeles County, Long Beach and Santa Monica have also voted to raise their minimum wage to $15.
On January 1, the state's minimum wage increased from $9 to $10, as part of legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2013. The City and county will see an additional increase of 50 cents July 1, the first step in a gradual increase to get the city and county minimum wage to $15 by 2020 and 2021 for businesses with fewer than 25 employees.
To ensure the higher wages get paid, the county is forming a Wage Enforcement Program, a unit of the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. The program will serve the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles county and will deal with investigations, education, outreach, negotiations and settlement.
We want to make sure that minimum wage workers know their rights under the ordinance and that employers know what their responsibilities are, said Brian Stiger, director of the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.
The program will begin June 1, but representatives of the Wage Enforcement Program have already begun contacting local businesses to notify them of the increase.
We are expecting complaints to come in shortly after the program begins, but come July 1st, we will be ready to investigate complaints of violations, said Stiger.
--
--
The Wage Enforcement Program is estimated to cost $800,000, but Stiger said that number may go up as the program is rolled out. The program currently has five employees, four of which are field investigators and they have already requested an additional six employees.
According to a report by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, low-wage workers in Los Angeles lose more than $26.2 million in wage-theft violations each week. Some of the common violations include violating minimum wage laws, not paying workers overtime and forcing workers to work off the clock.
Advocates say wage-theft complaints previously filed with the California Labor Commissioners Office took too long to be investigated and left workers waiting months to receive their back pay, if they were ever received at all. Stiger said that is a problem they aim to address with the county Wage Enforcement Program.
We want to make sure that if we have information of a violation of the ordinance, we can move as quickly as we can. We have been investigating consumer complaints and we realize that these investigations have to be concluded very quickly, said Stiger.
Some incorporated cities have requested to contract with the county's Wage Enforcement Program. Stiger said they are in the very early stages of discussion.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who proposed the county increase, said she hopes that increasing the minimum wage in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles - which makes up for 10 percent of the county's workforce - will push the other 87 incorporated cities towards an increase.
Various unincorporated areas border different cities and it's possible that workers would opt to work in the unincorporated areas rather than the cities. We hope that would encourage cities to raise their minimum wage as well, said Kuehl.
The raise of Californias minimum wage could help low wage workers stay above the poverty line. Photo:longislandwins/Flickr/Creative Commons License
Lopez said that although the state's recent increase to $10 is small, it has managed to make her life easier.
I feel more free to buy my basic needs without as many worries. It helps relieve some stress because making $9 an hour is hard. Every cent you make you have to think hard and make h
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
21/10/2025
Visual Data announces the appointment of Maz Al-Jumaili as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Localization, to advance client engagement, strategic partnerships, ...
The garment industry is notorious for rampant wage theft, contributing to L.A.s recognition as wage theft capital of the world. Silvia Rivera, garment worker and member of Koreatown Immigrant Worker Alliance (KIWA), an organization that advocates for workers rights. Photo courtesy of UCLA Labor Center. 
