BY DAVID MCLELLAN | March 11, 2020
LYNN – There are hundreds of construction workers who are or will be working at Lynn’s many current and future development sites. According to the Lynn Wage Theft Advisory Committee, it’s virtually guaranteed a chunk of them will get ripped off.
“It’s going to happen. It’s a slam dunk. It’s just so easy to get away with,” said Robert Reynolds, a member of the Wage Theft Advisory Committee who gave a talk on wage theft to the Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee Wednesday morning.
“This is something the whole community has a stake in. This harms everyone,” Reynolds said.
Wage theft is a term that encompasses a variety of legal infractions committed by employers, including failure to pay overtime wages, failure to pay a minimum wage, or otherwise not paying an employee the full amount to which they are legally or contractually entitled.
It harms the workers themselves, but also the larger community, Reynolds said. Tax revenue is lost, workers’ compensation and unemployment funds are lost, and honest businesses are disadvantaged.
According to Reynolds, construction is the No. 1 industry in terms of wage theft prevalence, followed by the food industry. Lynn officials should be paying extra attention to potential wage theft, given the amount of current or upcoming development in the city, he said.
“It’s almost guaranteed that that’s going on at every construction site,” he said. “You want a big banner hanging over the General Edwards Bridge saying, ‘If you’re going to engage in that stuff, we don’t want you here. And if you do engage in that stuff, we’re going to come after you.'”
With the recent increase in development – including at least six major waterfront developments adding thousands of new apartment units – the Wage Theft Advisory Committee is educating the public.