Wage Theft

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Kim Bobo's

Wage theft has been called "America's silent crime wave." It’s when businesses steal from their employees through a variety of unconscionable methods. Twenty-six percent of low wage workers don't get paid the minimum wage they are entitled to by law. Seventy-six percent of the country's work force doesn't get paid for the over time they work.

Workers are often purposefully misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees so the employer can avoid paying them benefits. Kim Bobo is the Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice and she coined the term “Wage Theft.” She's in town to speak at Duke Divinity School on September 27th, but first she joins host Frank Stasio along with Mandy Locke, a reporter for the News & Observer who has covered wage theft in North Carolina.