Did it used to be ok to steal wages from workers?

Well, yeah. It still is. Look at the declining rate of compensation compared to productivity graphs over the years. But, what about the pittance wages promised?

During the 2011 legislative session, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1024, which closed a loophole allowing employers to escape prosecution if they had paid employees only a portion of the wages owed. But now that the law is in effect, organizations and lawmakers in at least three Texas cities — Austin, El Paso and Houston — are facing a new challenge: how to ensure that the prosecution of wage theft is a priority.

In Austin, the Workers Defense Project, a workplace justice group, is collaborating with state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, who sponsored the bill in the House, to set up a meeting to talk with Austin’s police chief and the district and county attorneys about making wage theft an enforcement priority. The author of the bill, state Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, set up a task force in his home city to work on implementing the measure. And in Houston, the Metropolitan Organization, an interfaith social justice nonprofit, plans on meeting with local authorities and elected officials to ensure that the bill is enforced.

Thank you, Eddie.