By Priscilla DeGregory and Emily Saul
December 4, 2017 | 4:36pm
The city’s five district attorneys have agreed to crack down on wage theft by construction contractors – after an investigation revealed that more than $1.2 million in wages had been illegally withheld from workers.
The state Department of Labor has uncovered some 400 cases since it began looking into wage theft earlier this year. Nearly $700,000 has been returned so far, authorities said, and the investigation is ongoing.
“Every week, New Yorkers lose $20 million in unpaid wages. And every day, construction workers who risk their lives doing dangerous jobs have to wonder whether they’ll actually be paid for their work,” Manhattan DA Cy Vance said Monday.
Wage theft is one of the most pervasive problems in New York City and State, and in the construction industry in particular, workers are all too often preyed upon by their employers, who are able to steal millions of dollars in unpaid wages.