Advocates want the City of Minneapolis to do more to end wage theft, worker harassment
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Labor groups are calling for Minneapolis to more proactively enforce the city’s regulations against worker wage theft and on-site harassment. They say these protections are even more important as immigrant workers are targeted by federal law enforcement operations in Minnesota and across the country.
A report released Wednesday by the progressive think tank North Star Policy Action recommended that the city use its permitting power and partner with third-party auditing programs to ensure that labor regulations already on the books are enforced.
Researcher Aaron Rosenthal said the city’s labor regulations are “impressive on paper but unlikely to be properly followed.” In most cases, Rosenthal said the regulations require workers to report abuse and that investigations can be slow and result in limited penalties focused mostly on subcontractors, rather than developers.
“The message is clear: For workers, the risks of reporting are greater than the rewards, while bad actors see the opposite,” Rosenthal said. “The profits from exploitation outweigh the unlikely chances and minimal consequences of being caught.”
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Rosenthal said the city can use its permitting authority to require protections for workers, including those employed by subcontractors, before projects break ground.
Research from the Midwest Economic Policy Institute found that about a quarter of construction workers in Minnesota experience some wage theft or are paid off the books. Maria Contreras is a member of the workers’ rights advocacy group Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Luchar (CTUL) and said she was deprived of tens of thousands of dollars due to wage theft in a position cleaning construction sites.
“On top of unsafe working conditions, I also regularly worked more than 15 hours a day. Later, it came to light that I was not being paid for all the hours I worked,” Contreras said through a translator. “I repeatedly asked my manager for check stubs, and she refused to give them to me when I asked for them.”
Contreras said the wage theft she says she experienced made it challenging to cover her rent and buy food for her family.
Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne said the fact that the process often requires a complaint from a worker makes it even more challenging as the federal government cracks down on immigrants. ICE has often targeted workers on job sites in the Twin Cities and elsewhere.
“This isn’t about the fairness of our immigration process, this is about profit,” Payne said. “This is about intimidating workers to not fight for their rights, the rights that they’ve earned.”
Payne vowed to work with labor groups to find ways to more proactively enforce the city’s labor protections, which includes paid sick time, minimum wage requirements and a ban on wage theft.
Organizations that lobby on behalf of construction contractors and the business community did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
