PHOTO BY BRUCE CHECEFSKY

Tuesday, May 23, 2023; Cuyahoga County Council Chambers, Cuyahoga County Administrative Headquarters, 2079 E. 9^th Street: A supporter of legislation to offer protection to workers against wage theft pumps his fist as members of Guardians for Fair Work celebrate Cuyahoga County Council’s vote to pass the legislation.

by Bruce Checefsky

     Cuyahoga County Council Chambers burst with applause from supporters of wage theft legislation after Ordinance O2023-0009 passed with a majority of votes on May 23. 

     Guardians for Fair Work, an advocacy group of labor unions, community organizations, and residents across Cuyahoga County, lobbied for wage-theft protections and helped draft the county ordinance co-sponsored by Councilmen Dale Miller, Martin J. Sweeney, and Patrick Kelly. 

     Miller thanked Nora Kelley, an organizer for the Guardians for Fair Work and Northeast Ohio Worker Center, for bringing the issue to his attention. He thanked County Executive Chris Ronayne and Council President Jones for their support of the legislation. Miller also recognized the other council members who voted for the legislation.

     Miller said that thousands of employees have a hard enough time surviving on wages paid even when accounted for, let alone when shorted on pay. The ordinance was modeled on wage theft legislation passed in Cleveland and Columbus.

     “This legislation benefits workers and our economy by helping ensure employees receive the wages they have earned,” he said.

     District 6 Cuyahoga County Councilman Jack Schron was the only dissenting vote. District 5 Cuyahoga County Councilman Michael J. Gallagher recused himself, saying he was a victim of wage theft. He offered no additional explanation.

     Gallagher, a registered Republican, represents Olmsted Falls, Middleburg Heights, and Strongsville. He recently voted against a $500,000 contract for environmental testing on a potential site for a new county jail, calling it a waste of money.

     Schron represents Gates Mills, Chagrin Falls, and Hunting Valley, where most village and city mayors are registered Republicans. He explained his vote against the wage theft legislation, saying Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost stated that current disbarment policies are already in place as an effective tool against employers stealing wages.

     In 2022, Schron was publicly criticized for backroom deals, along with other council members, involving the distribution of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and former Moreland Hills Mayor Dan Fritz, as reported by cleveland.com. The Village of Moreland Hills was eventually awarded $186,173 for the President Garfield Birth Site and Cabin Path Stairs Project. Fritz, a career firefighter and paramedic who served as Moreland Hills mayor since 2000, died suddenly on March 16 at age 55.

     Schron took to the microphone before the vote and explained that wage theft legislation was unnecessary.

     “We cannot go down this road of adjusting every single piece of legislation that we have passed during the last 12 years. It is not a good practice,” said Schron. “I do not want to follow what the City of Cleveland did.”

     Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance in December 2022 that establishes the Fair Employment Wage Board, a seven-member board to oversee the enforcement of the wage theft policy as well as other pro-worker policies, and creates the Adverse Determination List, where any person or entity that has received an Adverse Determination or has committed wage theft within the last three years will not be eligible to enter into a City contract. The legislation also applies to businesses working as subcontractors on City contracts.

     Wage theft is not paying the proper wages due to a worker or paying inordinately low salaries and failing to abide by employment laws and regulations. Cheating workers on holiday pay is wage theft, as is paying less than minimum wage, not paying workers overtime, or not allowing them to take meal and rest breaks. Wage theft affects workers across all income levels but is most commonly associated with lower-income positions and the service industry. It is responsible for roughly three times as much economic loss as other types of theft, including bank robberies, shoplifting, and credit card fraud combined.

     A new analysis from Policy Matters Ohio shows employers steal from about 213,000 Ohioans every year by paying them below the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, which at $7.25 per hour works out to $290 a week and $15,080 a year before taxes.

     The hourly minimum wage in Ohio ranks 23rd in the nation at $10.10 per hour. A new proposal would raise the Ohio minimum wage to $12.75 in 2024 and $15 in 2025, then index it to inflation. Twenty states currently have a $7.25 minimum wage.

     Researchers have found that an increase in minimum wages does not correspond to increases in income. Most employers cut labor costs by cutting hours when hourly wages rise.

     Wage and hour enforcement occurs when a worker files a complaint. But workers are the least likely to come forward to report a violation because they lack information about their legal rights or fear losing their jobs. Immigrant workers are especially vulnerable. Employers guilty of violating wage and hour laws pay less in fines than paying workers owed wages.

     Greater emphasis on enforcement and a focus on changing social norms is needed, the research cited. Enforcement strategies that increase compliance with wage and hours laws, such as wage insurance and enforcement, could improve the situation.

     Nearly 52 million workers, almost one-third of the labor force, earn less than $15 an hour, disproportionately women and people of color, according to a study by Oxfam America, an anti-poverty advocacy group. Low wages lead to poverty. Cleveland has a poverty rate among the highest in the nation.

     From 2000 to 2022, the cost of fuel and utilities increased by 115 percent in most American cities, while the poverty rate has remained flat for decades even as federal relief has surged, reported the New York Times. The lack of organized unions is just one of the many reasons workers are being underpaid.

     Grace Heffernan, Kelley, and a dozen Guardians for Fair Work supporters met outside council chambers afterward to celebrate their victory.

     Heffernan, board chair of the Northeast Ohio Worker Center, an organization built by workers for workers to organize and fight back against the systems that have workers feeling isolated, overworked, underpaid, and exploited, said that Cuyahoga County will no longer do business with businesses that steal from their workers.