Wage theft is the most egregious type of theft in the United States: it's estimated that bosses steal over $39 billion from workers each year.
Under existing law, even when a worker successfully wins a wage theft case, it's almost impossible for workers to collect their owed wages because employers can easily hide their assets. SWEAT allows workers to freeze employers' assets (called a ‘lien’).
This means that when workers are cheated out of their pay, they'll actually be able to get the stolen wages wages back.
The SWEAT Bill protects our rights as workers to collect on what's owed to us. This not only allows workers to recuperate stolen wages, but it provides a real way to discourage and stop wage theft.
SWEAT has passed the Assembly and is about to enter the Judiciary Committee in the Senate. Exploitative bosses have been rallying hard to stop SWEAT so they can continue stealing from working New Yorkers without repercussions. We need to show an outpouring of support from the community in favor of SWEAT to pass the bill to protect our rights as workers!