Investigating wage theft and Oregon's labor bureau
I first began covering Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries in 2023, with a monthslong data-driven investigation into its failures to hold employers accountable for millions of dollars in stolen wages and penalties. From there, I’ve followed the ongoing ripple effect of that coverage as the state struggles to adequately equip the labor bureau to uphold crucial worker rights:
Oregon’s labor bureau failed to collect nearly $5 million in wage theft claims since 2015 (Dec. 4, 2023)
“Oregon, however, has struggled to hold employers like Revolution Film Group accountable for their failure to pay workers, the Bureau of Labor and Industries’ own data shows. Of the nearly $12 million that the agency ordered employers to pay in back wages and penalties over the last eight years, more than 40% — almost $5 million — was never recovered, an InvestigateWest analysis found.”
Oregon employers rarely pay penalties for wage theft. The state wants to change that (Dec. 20, 2023)
“While the agency has recovered just 41% of wages and penalties overall in the last eight years, a recent InvestigateWest analysis found, employers pay penalties at a much lower rate.
From 2015 through 2020, employers in aggregate paid less than $1 of every $10 in penalties they faced. In just 11% of claims did employers pay their penalties in full.
Now, the labor bureau said it’s strengthening its enforcement of penalties, assessing certain penalties earlier and more often. It also plans to hold more employers accountable for paying the penalties leveraged on them.”
Oregon’s labor regulators ask for lawmakers’ help to tackle backlogs (Jan. 29, 2024)
“Stephenson is asking lawmakers this session for more funding to support the agency’s efforts. Workers sometimes wait a year or more to get justice after experiencing discrimination or having their wages stolen. And a majority of employers don’t even wind up paying what they owe, as InvestigateWest revealed in a recent analysis of wage claim data, which Stephenson cited in a presentation this month to lawmakers.
“This is obviously not what we want,” Stephenson said. “It gives a competitive advantage to employers that don’t play by the rules. This is millions of dollars that aren’t getting back into our economy.”
Oregon report spotlights state’s struggle to enforce worker protections (Sept. 18, 2024)
“A new report from Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries spotlights the hurdles barring the agency from enforcing critical protections for workers, from wage theft to civil rights and paid leave.
Last year, InvestigateWest reported on the bureau’s struggles to collect stolen wages and penalties even in the cases that it was able to investigate … State leaders, including Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson, have cited the findings, including in the new report, as further evidence of the fallout that they link to decades of underfunding at the agency.”
Oregon labor bureau prioritizes wage claims of lower-paid workers, setting the stage for big budget ask (Jan. 16, 2025)
“In November, the bureau began prioritizing wage claims based on a new standard: the income level of the worker. Claims submitted by people making more than $25.34 an hour, or about $53,000 a year, are no longer being investigated by the agency. In presentations to legislators in the fall, Stephenson cast the wage threshold as a critical step to prioritize the state’s most vulnerable workers, who are unlikely to have any other recourse to recover their pay outside of her agency.”
