Illinois workers owed more than $5 million in back wages

New ‘Workers Owed Wages’ website can help them reclaim it.
Check it out – you may be owed money.

By ELIZABETH DONALD
Illinois Correspondent

Springfield, IL – The U.S. Department of Labor is currently holding more than $5 million in wages owed to more than 7,000 Illinois workers, and the department has launched a new site in an effort to return it.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that nationwide, 222,000 workers are owed more than $161 million in back wages after investigations of underpaying companies. If an employee is owed money, the government collects and attempts to distribute the money. But after three years, it is turned over to the Department of the Treasury.

Illinois Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has launched a “Workers Owed Wages” website to try to connect workers with unclaimed back pay before the deadline.

“As you can imagine, sometimes the workers have moved or their addresses aren’t known and therefore, those are the workers, we term unlocatables, that we search for based on the best information we can. But sometimes we are unable to locate them,” said Tom Gauza, district director of the U.S. Department of Labor, according to Capitol News Illinois.

THE WEBSITE
The website (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/wow) allows you to search for your former employers, enter your name and find out if you have wages owed to you. You will have to provide supporting documentation, which might consist of a copy of your Social Security or taxpayer identification card, a driver’s license or state ID, W-2 form or pay stub. On average it takes about six weeks to process a claim, according to the website.

The site is available in English and Spanish, and employees can claim their wages regardless of their immigration status, Gauza told St. Louis Public Radio.

SHORTCHANGING WORKERS
This move follows an amicus brief filed by the Illinois Department of Labor and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul in the case of a Chicago manufacturing company accused of shortchanging workers with overtime and baseline pay.

While the workers’ suit was overturned at the appellate court, Raoul and the Department of Labor argue that the Illinois Minimum Wage Law protects employees’ right to recover lost wages and penalties in court.

“Employees deserve to receive fair wages they have earned from all their hours of work. They also have the right to recover penalties if their employer violates Illinois’ Minimum Wage Law,” Raoul said.

“If the appellate court’s opinion is allowed to stand, employers could withhold overtime wages, provide them only on demand, and avoid paying any penalties. I urge the Supreme Court to overturn the appellate court’s opinion. I will continue to advocate for Illinois workers to receive all wages they are owed and to ensure that employers who violate the law to be held accountable.”

Raoul and the DOL argue that employers are not permitted to adopt a “wait and see” approach to paying overtime and offer unpaid back wages only when lawsuits are threatened.

In three major cases in recent years, Illinois has recovered $400,000 in back wages and penatlies from Rivian Automotive for failing to pay Mexican laborers for overtime; $1 million from Colony Display LLC for wage-fixing with staffing agencies; and $3 million from Greenridge Farm Inc. for failure to pay overtime.

It’s estimated that $50 Billion is stolen from U.S. workers in the form of wage theft.