Wage theft is most definitely a crime. This is a crime the state of Washington is well aware of.

In the past eight years, both the Washington legislature and the Seattle City Council have passed laws to address what’s coming to be understood as a huge problem. It’s a misdemeanor under city and state law. Widespread violations of minimum-wage laws, overtime provisions, and other examples of wage theft have been well documented in recent decades. As reported in www.seattleweekly.com.

And yet in hundreds of cases annually, Washington fails to retrieve workers’ shorted wages. Meanwhile, the city ordinance has yet to bring about even a single prosecution of employers who withhold pay.

The Washington Department of Labor & Industries has sped up wage-complaint investigations over the past several years, yet four in 10 cases take longer than the legally mandated 60 days. And the department collects less than $6 of every $10 it says workers are owed.

Do you think wage theft is rampant across the country? We will continue to look at this problem, through the "eyes" of Washington in subsequent blogs here at stoptheftclass.com