*SMLR-Net, the source of selected news on labor and employment relations and human resource management** *

* * Title:* *The Wage Theft Epidemic Date: Feb. 20, 2013

*Source:* In These Times Author: Spencer Woodman Summary: Even as the ranks of low-wage workers have swelled since the recession, Democratic and Republican legislatures in more than a dozen states have quietly slashed fundinghttp://www.law.columbia.edu/null?&exclusive=filemgr.download&file_id=551819&rtcontentdisposition=filename%3DWage%20and%20Hour%20Report%20FINAL.pdffor the agencies that enforce minimum wage law. Budget cuts are no surprise in an era of austerity. Yet the effect of these cuts on wage-and-hour investigative units—charged with examining and settling wage disputes—has seriously compromised an essential line of defense for already vulnerable low-wage earners, according to experts. State labor officials and researchers around the country tell *In These Times* that low-wage workers facing abusive employers increasingly have nowhere to turn.

*Link*: http://bit.ly/Y2kS5i