Wage-theft ordinance moves forward
Employers who don't pay could face fines, jail
By Ryan Morgan
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Boulder employers who fail to pay workers their wages would face new penalties under an ordinance the City Council approved Tuesday night.

Backers said the ordinance, which passed unanimously on second reading and will return for a third and final reading before the council later this month, will help the day laborers and other low-wage workers - many of them immigrants - who are most frequently the victims of theft.

"I think we're making a significant difference by folks who often don't feel that they're served by city government," City Councilwoman Robin Bohannan, who pushed for the measure, said Tuesday.

Under the new law, employers who fail to pay wages could be forced to do so and could also face penalties of up to $1,000 and 90 days in jail.

Bohannan convinced her fellow council members to remove a provision that would have required employees to have a claim of at least $250 before they could get help from the city.

"Theft is theft, and I want to get the message out there that you can't do it," Bohannan said.

An employer could mount an "affirmative defense" under the ordinance if the company could prove in court that it didn't have the money to pay wages, that the initial employment offer had been made in good faith and that the employee had been informed of the company's inability to pay promptly, among others.

Laurel Herndon, a lawyer who works with El Centro Amistad to help workers recover wages they haven't been paid, praised the ordinance. Given a law with some teeth, she said, proving a day laborer has worked for an employer is often fairly easy.

"In one of my favorite cases, the employer said, 'Nope, nevermet that guy, I don't know who you're talking about,'" Herndon said. "The worker pulls out his photo-radar ticket of him in the employer's truck with the employer's dog sitting next to him."

Backers said employees who don't get paid haven't had many options. A state law barring the practice only kicks in when an employee is shorted by at least $1,000, and civil remedies are poorly enforced, Richard Johnson, Boulder's director of community services, told the council.

But Boulder resident Debra Ordway said she thinks the City Council is only looking at half of the problem. Sometimes workers don't get paid because they abandoned their jobs, she said, and they didn't deserve a paycheck.

"The truth was they weren't respectful of the employer," she said. "We've got to look at two sides to this story."

Jerry Gordon, acting city attorney, said prosecutors and other city officials would take those kinds of circumstances into account when deciding whether to proceed with a case.

City Councilman Richard Polk said he's glad the measure's going forward. He said he was amused when he read in a city memo that the ordinance could discourage some businesses from operating in the city.

"As a businessperson and as a citizen, that sounds like good news to me," Polk said. "I don't want people operating in Boulder who don't pay their employees, so let's pass this thing."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Ryan Morgan at 303-473-1333 or morganr@dailycamera.com.