Dive Brief:

• While Seattle and San Francisco as well as Oregon, California and New York are phasing in wage increases that will grow to $15 an hour or more, many of the entities that passed “living wage” laws are not having an easy time enforcing those new laws, according to the Associated Press.

• The AP reports that compliance evidence could be found on most paycheck stubs (via hours worked), but state and federal laws don’t mandate employers to routinely provide that data to the government. That means those who are able to investigate compliance often need a worker to complain before stepping forward.

• According to the AP, workers are reluctant to blow the whistle for fear of being fired. Based on research that says 25% of businesses nationwide cheat workers when it comes to minimum wages, labor advocates say that without the data needed for enforcement, the laws are worthless.

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Dive Insight:

"It’s pretty shocking how common the violations are," Donna Levitt, director of the labor enforcement office in San Francisco, told the AP. Levitt's office has recovered more than $10 million in back wages since 2004.

“It’s just so pervasive and so rampant,” Haeyoung Yoon of the National Employment Law Project (NLP), told the AP. The NLP advocates higher fines to give employers more incentives to follow the laws, along with tougher enforcement nationwide. “There’s just not enough boots on the ground to wipe it out, because the problem is so enormous."

The AP article explained that non-compliance is a mixed bag, as some employers either ignore or misunderstand the new laws while others deliberately underestimate employee hours or cheat by having workers labor off the clock. A solution mentioned in the article would be recovering the high costs of investigations through higher fines or anticipating more revenue as more people are paid their legal wages.