Not that it was much of a shock, but on Thursday evening the St. Pete City Council passed an ordinance to protect residents against wage theft, and did so unanimously.
After it passed, the audience applauded.
"We're setting a very strong tone for leadership in the Tampa Bay area," said Council member Darden Rice. "And we're doing it because we recognize the inherent vulnerability of our workforce to wage theft, and we've stepped up to address it on the local level when state and federal protections and leadership have failed us…It says a lot about the values of our city."
St. Pete is the first city in Florida to do so, though several counties have adopted similar measures. The new policy sets up a process by which a worker who feels his or her employer has been withholding pay can seek to retrieve the stolen wages. The measure that was approved Thursday sets up the administrative side of the ordinance, Rice said, and the mayor's office is working the enforcement side.
The city would hire an administrator to handle the program; his or her salary, benefits and technological requirements as well as a payment of a hearing officer, probably on a pro bono basis, would cost the city $75,000 to $90,000, said City Administrator Gary Cornwell.
"This is something that has been needed for years and years," said John Dubrule, chief operating officer with Gulf Coast Legal Services. "This is a pernicious problem. I am so happy that [a wage theft ordinance] is happening in my community and I think that this is going to help…level the playing field because a lot of these people feel powerless. They feel like they have nowhere to go."
He added that he thinks the city will probably make money on fines levied against employers who commit wage theft because there are "just so many of them out there."
Jane Walker, executive director of the Daystar Life Center, said victims will be less afraid to stand up for themselves if they know there's recourse.
“Folks are afraid to report," Walker said. "This gives teeth and courage to those folks who are afraid that the job they have, even if they're not getting paid fairly, at least it's a job. This gives them the courage the make the kind of reports that they need to make to make fair for all.”
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2015.