The city of San Diego’s new minimum wage law went into effect last June, and the city funded an enforcement office to hear complaints and investigate violations. But until a few weeks ago, the city had been directing wage complaints to state labor regulators, who said the law can not be properly enforced without local help.
The Center on Policy Initiatives released a study on San Diego wage theft on Tuesday, estimating that employers in San Diego and Imperial counties fail to pay the minimum wage 40,000 times per year. The state received nearly 3,000 San Diego claims last year. The Center on Policy Initiatives worked with San Diego State University’s sociology department and the Employee Rights Center of San Diego on the study.
In 2016, voters approved Proposition I, which increased the minimum wage and gave workers five sick days a year. The city said it would rely on employee complaints to make sure the law was followed.
Listen the KPBS Midday interview with our Executive Director Kyra Greene here:
