Published in: Denver News
DENVER – Denver Labor closed out its reporting year with more than $2 million recovered for workers — an all-time high that helped more than 3,500 people pay their bills, support their families, and contribute in our communities.
“Every case is important to our team, big or small, because every worker matters to our community,” Auditor O’Brien said. “My Denver Labor team is a national example of how to do this work the right way — by engaging both workers and businesses in pursuit of shared positive outcomes.”
A chart showing the Auditor’s Office recovered $2,047,214 in restitution in 2023. The previous highest record for restitution recovered was in 2022, when the office recovered $1,101,783.
The Denver Labor reporting period for wage theft and prevailing wage restitution runs from Nov. 1 through Oct. 31 each year. In that time, the wage theft team closed 53 cases and the prevailing wage team closed 533 for a total of 586. That is over 100 more closed cases than the previous year. And the teams have 157 open wage theft cases they hope to close as soon as possible.
“My team is working hard to get cases closed and money in workers’ pockets as fast as possible,” Auditor O’Brien said. “Having all the necessary tools to get the work done will be the key to success in the years to come.”
In the past year, our analysts have returned more money to workers than ever because of new wage theft legislation and more cases to investigate.
The citywide minimum wage rate will increase from $17.29 per hour to $18.29 per hour on Jan. 1, 2024. Employers can still claim up to $3.02 in tip credits per hour for qualified food and beverage workers, provided employers can show documentation of at least that amount in actual tips received.
All employers on prevailing wage projects are required to report their payroll to the city every week, while wage theft and minimum wage cases are complaint-based or determined through data-based proactive investigation. These cases can often be more complex and involve more research, which means they sometimes take more time to complete.
How we got here
In January of this year, the Denver City Council passed the new civil wage theft ordinance, which led to the creation and expansion of our wage theft team to include both minimum wage and civil wage theft investigations. In addition to promised pay, wage theft could include violations of minimum wage, overtime pay, paid sick time, rest breaks, and time off.
As a result of this legislation, our team now has requirements to collect certain damages and interests from employers for nonpayment of wages owed. All this money goes directly back to the workers and factors into our final restitution amount.
How this year compares to previous years
The total amount returned to workers is almost double that of the previous year, which was also a record-setting year.
High-risk industries for wage theft include construction, restaurants and bars, beauty and salon services, valet services, home care, national chains, and businesses along Denver’s borders.
In addition to more closed cases this year, we also have more pending wage theft cases than the previous year. At the end of the previous reporting period, 43 minimum wage cases were still pending. The 157 open wage theft cases this year reflects the broader protections in the law, our ability to take on a larger caseload, and more participation from the community when it comes to complaints and investigations.
Working with businesses and the community
Educating and engaging with the business community is the first step in successful enforcement. Workers, Denver Labor, and well-intentioned employers would all prefer workers to be paid correctly from their first paycheck.
“Wage theft is not just a problem for workers; it’s theft from the whole community,” Denver Labor Executive Director Matthew Fritz-Mauer said. “People need the money they’ve earned to pay for rent, school, daycare, food, and more. When workers have their wages stolen, families and communities suffer.”
We work throughout the year to offer trainings, engage directly with employers, and offer resources in multiple languages to help with this process. In October, Auditor O’Brien and our analysts also visited businesses downtown to help make sure employers are prepared for the minimum wage increase coming up on the first of the year.
Employers are required to share the mandatory bilingual worksite poster(PDF, 502KB) with their workers. This could include posting the notice in a physically convenient location at the worksite, providing it directly to each worker, or sharing it electronically.
“Building relationships with the businesses that want to pay their workers in accordance with the law is important,” Auditor O’Brien said. “Without thorough wage theft enforcement, bad-actor businesses are able to unfairly undercut employers trying to do the right thing.”
How it works
Denver Labor enforces Denver’s civil wage theft, minimum wage, and prevailing wage laws. Employers must pay the highest applicable wage rate to their workers.
Here are examples of successfully closed cases this year:
Denver Labor initiated an active enforcement investigation for a valet company in Denver. After receiving payroll records and conducting an audit, our team noticed the business was applying the tip credit, which is only allowed in the food and beverage industry. The company wanted to make things right and cooperated with our team to return unpaid wages to their workers. The case ended with Denver Labor helping recover $70,531.53 in restitution for 60 workers.
Denver’s Civil Wage Theft Ordinance adopts an “up-the-chain accountability” approach. This means that any employer who ultimately benefits from a worker’s labor may be required to pay their wages. Denver Labor’s prevailing wage team notified our civil wage theft team of a city subcontractor that did not pay its workers restitution for the work they performed. Our teams collaborated and applied the “up-the-chain accountability” approach to the primary contractor for the project. The primary contractor understood and promptly paid $5,722.82 in restitution to seven employees.
We received a wage complaint because a company was not paying remote employees who live and work in the City of County of Denver the correct minimum wage. Our team educated the employer on Denver’s Minimum Wage Ordinance and how it applies to work performed within the geographic limits of the City and County of Denver. The employer worked with our office and corrected the workers’ wages. As a result of our work, our team recovered $334,211.23 for 161 employees.
Since Denver’s Citywide Minimum Wage Ordinance came into effect, our minimum wage team has resolved multiple underpayment cases in the janitorial industry. In one case, our analysts initiated an active enforcement case and identified two workers who did not receive the local minimum wage from 2020 to 2022. The business was cooperative, wanted to fix the error, and paid those workers immediately after receiving the underpayment determination. The investigation ended with our office recovering $2,065.60 in restitution for these two workers.
Read more Denver Labor successful restitution stories
Business Resources
Read more about civil wage theft
AUDITOR TIMOTHY O’BRIEN, CPA Denver Auditor
Denver Auditor´s Office
201 W. Colfax Ave. #705 Denver, CO 80202 Email: auditor@denvergov.org Call: 720-913-5000 Follow us on FacebookConnect with us on Twitter Read our social media policy
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