Wen Lang Rong worked at a Sacramento Chinese restaurant for four years, doing food preparation in the kitchen and janitorial work. She worked 11 hours a day, 6 days a week, and was paid $1600 a month, which comes out to about $5.80 an hour, far below California's minimum wage of $9.92. "It was very difficult and we always got scolded by the boss," she says in Cantonese. Wen worked until a work-induced injury forced her to quit her job.  Wage theft is rampant in San Francisco. A study conducted by the Chinese Progressive Alliance (CPA) last year found that 50 percent of workers in Chinese eateries are being paid less than the minimum wage. "But it's not just Chinese workers," says Wen, "It's a city-wide problem. Latino workers, African American workers, Filipino workers...they all suffer from wage theft."

Wage theft takes many different forms. Not paying the minimum wage is a primary concern, but employers find many other ways to deprive their workers, mostly in the form of overtime pay and sick leave. The CPA's study found that in Chinatown, 76 percent of the workers report not being paid overtime, 20 percent work more than 60 hours a week, and only 3 percent have employer-provided health care.  Josue Arguelles, co-director of Youth Workers United, tells SF Weekly that employers often take advantage of undocumented workers, telling them that they do not have the same rights as documented workers, which is not the case in California.  No city-wide study has been conducted, but Alex Tom, Executive Director of CPA, believes that numbers across the city are not much better. Organizations like the Chinese Progressive Alliance and Young Workers United help workers file complaints, but they can only help the workers that come to them. Young Workers United sees about two dozen cases of wage theft each week. (click on link to read full story)