Ruth Milkman is not in PR. But if she had been, she'd probably move the following statistic from the 53rd page of her month-old UCLA study to the front, where it might have had a fighting chance of being read, and then reported, by local media (it wasn't): Every week, employers in Los Angeles County pilfer $26.2 million from the measly paychecks of the poorest 17 percent of workers.

"That's what we're saying, and we're very confident in it," says Milkman, a UCLA sociologist and co-author of Wage Theft and Workplace Violations in Los Angeles.
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Published in January, it is a comprehensive, 69-page study of 1,800 low-wage workers, ranging from bank tellers to security guards. Its conclusions, if correct, may act as a wake-up call for political and business leaders over employers' widespread practice of denying L.A.'s worst-off employees basic on-the-job legal rights: the $8 hourly minimum wage, time-and-a-half for overtime, rest and meal breaks and so on.

"We're talking about compliance with minimum standards. You have employers here intentionally violating the laws because they know there's no enforcement," says study co-author Victor Narro. "Employers make a calculation: They choose not to pay what they should because they get away with it." (click on link to read full story)