If you steal from your employer, you could end up in jail. But what happens when your employer steals from you?

Every year, employers steal billions of dollars from American workers through unpaid wages, overtime violations, and other illegal practices. Yet the consequences for employers are often little more than the cost of doing business.

On Election Day, we’re revisiting our 2024 conversation with labor law enforcement expert Terri Gerstein about one of the most widespread and overlooked crimes in the American economy. Why is wage theft so common? Why are employers so rarely held criminally accountable? And what would it take to change that?

Because building an economy that works for working people isn’t just about passing better laws. It’s about having a government willing to enforce them.

In the shadows of corporate greed and exploitation lies a sinister crime that is silently perpetrated, leaving countless victims in its wake—a crime that affects millions of hardworking Americans every year and sucks billions out of our economy —Wage Theft. No industry is immune to this insidious crime, from restaurant workers to construction laborers. On this episode of Pitchfork Economics, we are joined by Terri Gerstein, Director of the Labor Initiative at NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, to unpack the chilling truth behind these workplace crimes, learn who the perpetrators are, and uncover how they get away with it. Most importantly, what can be done to stop them?