Ramon Hernandez had a problem.

The bakery he had worked at for more than two years was behind on his salary. Way behind. Sometimes, Hernandez said, the bakery would promise to pay him as soon as business got better. Other times it would give the elderly cleaning man a meal or two instead of his salary.

"When I asked them about the money they owed me, they always had some excuse about why they couldn't pay me," Hernandez said in Spanish. " 'We'll pay you later,' they said."

When the back pay his employer owed him became thousands of dollars, Hernandez complained again. That's when, Hernandez said, the bakery fired him.

Hernandez's problem was further complicated by the fact that he is an illegal immigrant. He came to the United States to earn money to send to his family back in Mexico. Illegal immigrants working in low-paying jobs are increasingly targeted by employers, experts say, who find it easier not to pay their salaries.

And even though undocumented workers receive the same protection as U.S. citizens when it comes to claiming unpaid wages, many are hesitant to go to the authorities.

"We are seeing an uptick," said Melvina Ford, the executive director of the DC Employment Justice Center, which provides legal advice and assistance to low-income workers. "If I am an employer looking not to pay employees, I am going to choose the employee least likely to make a claim against me."

Ford said the organization hired a new staffer specifically to handle the increase the center is seeing in claims brought by immigrants.

In 2008, the Department of Labor collected more than $57 million in unpaid back pay from employers in low-wage industries, an increase of $5 million from the previous year.

(Please click link to read full story)