Labor authority makes wage theft a priority
Workforce Solutions pursuing more than 1,500 complaints, many in Santa Fe
With a bigger budget, more investigators and plans for a higher-tech system to process complaints, New Mexico’s labor department is cracking down on wage theft cases across the state.
The agency is investigating more than 1,500 complaints by workers — including many in Santa Fe — who say their employers have refused to pay overtime, don’t issue paychecks on time, ignore minimum wage laws or fail to distribute tips, Workforce Solutions Secretary Bill McCamley said.
Recently, Workforce Solutions began investigating wage theft claims against the CrowBar in downtown Santa Fe. “We have three active cases as of now
regarding the CrowBar,” McCamley said in a recent interview. He declined to elaborate.
Getting serious about wage law violations is a mandate from the top, he said. “This governor is making this a priority. If you steal from someone’s paycheck, that is no different than breaking into a house.
“The ones being stolen from are the ones that can least afford the theft,” McCamley added. “There is a study that 37 percent of people don’t have $500. If your car breaks down, how do you fix it? Many of them are living paycheck to paycheck. Gov. Lujan Grisham believes we need an economy that works for everybody.”
Industries that employ high levels of workers without legal residency status — such as hospitality, food service and agriculture — are primary arenas for wage theft. McCamley said home health care is another industry seeing worker complaints.
“Home health care is a 24/7 business,” he said. “If I’m asked to stay extra time, I need to be paid.”
‘The message is simple: Don’t steal’
The New Mexico Legislature bolstered its wage theft law a decade ago. But the Lujan Grisham administration’s effort to target violators marks a sharp shift from the previous administration, which drew criticism that it was wrongfully rejecting workers’ claims, particularly those worth more than $10,000.
In 2014, state Rep. Miguel Garcia, an Albuquerque Democrat, asked then-Attorney General Gary King to investigate the Department of Workforce Solutions’ practices when it came to wage complaints.
“If the department needs help, it should come to lawmakers and request resources instead of making excuses,” Garcia told The New Mexican at the time.
Under Lujan Grisham, its resources have grown.
Workforce Solutions spokeswoman Stacy Johnston said the operating budget for the agency’s Wage and Hour Division was increased this year to $3.54 million from $2.97 million.
When McCamley started his tenure in January, the division had seven investigators — four in Albuquerque and three in Las Cruces — and three management analysts. Now it has 11 investigators, including one in Santa Fe, and four management analysts. A fifth will be added in November.
“We are including a request for $500,000 additional funds to add three more investigators, two specifically to cover public works and one additional management analyst,” Johnston said.
Public works involves government contracts with privatesector firms doing roadwork or construction.
“It’s not just a pay issue but a public safety issue,” McCamley said. “Is this building being built in a way that is safe?”
McCamley also is introducing an electronic filing system for wage complaints.
“All the complaints before were paper reports,” he said. “There were piles of reports.”
Additionally, Workforce Solutions has three webinars on tips, payroll and other wage matters to help educate business owners.
“We want to make sure businesses have the information,” McCamley said. “… I think most businesses want to do the right thing. We don’t just want to have a hammer as a tool. The message is simple: Don’t steal from your workers.”
A warning to businesses
Businesses accused of wage theft in Santa Fe and across New Mexico range from small mom and pop shops to some of the largest employers. Recent examples:
◆ Earlier this year, state District Court judges awarded over $58,000 to three workers who had sued Shohko Café and nearly $389,000 to three workers of Maki Yaki. The restaurants, both in Santa Fe, are now closed.
◆ The U.S. Department of Labor reported in March that Heritage Hotels & Resorts, which operates some of the largest downtown hotels in Santa Fe, had paid nearly $80,000 in back wages and damages to 69 employees at two of its Albuquerque hotels for violating federal overtime laws.
◆ A lawsuit filed in July by two former employees of Meow Wolf accuses the Santa Fe-based arts and entertainment company of unfair pay practices. The company, which has a workforce of more than 400, then fired the women for raising concerns about pay, they allege in their complaint.
◆ McCamley, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez announced earlier this month they were filing a lawsuit against Hacienda del Rio in Albuquerque’s Old Town, accusing it of failing to pay proper wages to more than 30 employees. The announcement came as a warning to New Mexico business owners that the state is targeting labor law offenders.
Rob Day, owner of Santa Fe Bar and Grill, is one businessman who has faced scrutiny by Workforce Solutions over wage theft claims.
The agency filed court documents in July seeking payroll data from the restaurant, even though the five workers who filed the complaints last year later withdrew them, saying they had reached a settlement.
Day told The New Mexican he had provided the agency with thousands of pages of documents and had obtained statements from workers saying they had no wage concerns.
He called McCamley “a J. Edgar Hoover type” who is “kind of harassing me.”
Overwhelming laws or lax employers?
CrowBar owner Rick Cassidy, who opened the San Francisco Street bar in 2015, did not return messages to comment on a Workforce Solutions investigation into his pay practices.
Former CrowBar employee Austin Girard, who filed a complaint with the labor department Sept. 16, told The New Mexican several current and former workers were owed paychecks, were underpaid or weren’t given pooled tips in the brief time he worked there, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 12.
“This isn’t my first experience in Santa Fe not being paid,” he said.
Estevan Ortiz, who worked as a doorman and bartender at CrowBar between mid-January and mid-June, filed a similar complaint June 28. “The last month I had to keep hounding them to get my paycheck and tips,” he said. He believes he is still owed about $2,000.
Claimant Kory Abayhan, who worked at the bar from October 2018 to July 14, first as a bouncer and then a bartender, said he sometimes waited a month to get a paycheck.
Carol Wight, CEO of the New Mexico Restaurant Association, said she thinks 98 percent of restaurants in the state “are trying to do the right thing.”
But, she said, labor laws can easily overwhelm restaurateurs.
“The basic problem here is labor law is very confusing, and we have layers of them,” Wight said, citing federal, state and local governments, many of which have set their own minimum wages. “If you are a small independent business and doing your own payroll, it’s very hard to keep up with the red tape.”
Still, she said, “We are adamant that people pay their people correctly.”
New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry CEO Rob Black said he believes wage theft is “not that pervasive” in the business community.
But he would like Workforce Solutions to focus more heavily on educating business owners about the law.
“We have difficulty getting education to businesses,” Black said. “… The secret is taking a collaborative, partnership approach, not a punitive, investigative approach.”