BY GLENN BLAIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, April 3, 2018, 8:30 PM
ALBANY – State investigators recovered more than $35.3 million in stolen wages in 2017 – a boost of over $1.3 million from the year before, officials announced Tuesday.
The wages were returned to 36,446 workers across New York, including 15,577 in the city, who were not properly compensated for their time on the job.
“We have zero tolerance for those who seek to rob employees out of an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work,” Gov. Cuomo said.
Since taking office in 2011, Cuomo has made wage theft a priority for the state Labor Department and other agencies. With the 2017 figures, the state has now returned $258.4 million to 215,335 workers.
The state’s just-approved 2018-19 budget included $1 million to fund the Labor Department’s efforts to investigate wage theft, Cuomo added.
Among the most common forms of wage theft are failure to pay overtime, failure to pay the correct prevailing wage and the charging of workers for required uniforms and equipment.
State officials urged workers who wish to file a wage theft complaint to call (888) 4-NYSDOL.