Testifiers weigh in on need to combat wage theft in Pennsylvania
Estimated 46 million instances of wage theft each year
Rep. Emily Kinkead February 25, 2025 | 1:17 PM
HARRISBURG, Feb. 25 – Wage theft is a pervasive problem in Pennsylvania and across the country responsible for roughly three times as much economic loss as all other theft combined, testifiers said Tuesday during a House Majority Policy Committee hearing on the topic.
Studies by Temple University estimate there are 46 million instances of wage theft in Pennsylvania each year, keeping around $936 million annually from the workers that earned it. Wage theft can include employers paying less than the minimum wage, not properly compensating overtime work, or requiring employees to do “off-the-clock” work.
“It’s incredibly pertinent that we finally face this wage theft issue that has long gone unaddressed. Stealing from your employer could land you in prison, but employers stealing from employees often goes unpunished – to the tune of $50 billion per year nationally,” said Rep. Emily Kinkead (D-Allegheny), Chair of the Subcommittee on Labor, Energy, and Development, and host of Tuesday’s hearing. “We owe it to the hard workers of this commonwealth to make sure they’re fairly being compensated while finally holding these bad actors accountable.”
Testifiers say this issue heavily impacts home healthcare workers, currently the largest occupation statewide. Studies show that 17.5% of home healthcare workers experience minimum wage violations, while nearly 25% experience overtime or “off-the-clock” violations. In all, there are approximately more than 129,000 occurrences of wage theft every week in Pennsylvania for this occupation alone.
Retail workers, cashiers, office clerks and restaurant workers, all in the top ten largest occupations in the commonwealth, have all experienced wage theft as well, pointing to a widespread issue that impacts all industries. Skilled trade laborers are being shortchanged too, often by being misclassified by their employers.
Reps. Kinkead and Dan Miller (D-Allegheny) have introduced a package of legislation to combat wage theft by requiring businesses to properly post a summary of the Wage Payment and Collection Law and increasing penalties for violations of the law.
“Many times, employees are unaware of their rights and of the money being withheld from them through illegal work policies. It’s critical that we provide our workers with all the appropriate tools to learn about this issue, identify signs of wage theft and bring action against their employer, if necessary,” Kinkead added.
Thursday’s hearing featured testimony from Robert Daley, a Principal Attorney at Robert Peirce & Associates in Pittsburgh; and Michael Ford, Secretary and Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council. Submitted testimony can be found here.
The full hearing on wage theft can be viewed here, and photos will be available here.
Information about this and other House Democratic Policy Committee hearings can be found at pahouse.com/policy.