Photo by Peter Taylor

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Which would you rather do, launch a widespread strike against your workplace, which would turn the tide of political power into the hands of the workers, or wait months for the Department of Labor to give you information you already know?

The story of how one Charlotte worker was treated for trying to use the state agency to get his hard-earned money will make you think twice about relying on government bureaucracy to protect workers.

Last year, after working training shifts and never receiving payment, a worker at an uptown ramen restaurant filed a complaint against his employer with the North Carolina Department of Labor.

This worker thought the DOL would be able to give him his earned wages, but was infuriated after the state agency took no action to do so; instead collecting a fine from the guilty company for themselves, leaving him with nothing.

The department took months to complete the investigation, which was opened in July. The company, which operates two locations in Charlotte, failed to provide supplemental information showing record of the employee’s wages.

According to documents, the Department of Labor attempted to contact the restaurant owner multiple times between August 7^th and September 6^th. The DOL gave the company five different chances over the course of the month – an unacceptable amount of time for any worker in Charlotte to be waiting to be paid. This is nothing new for the company, as several employees who have since left the company have reported having their wages stolen and getting smaller amounts than what they were owed on their checks.

It wasn’t until September 16^th that the company’s owner sent a photo of her computer screen showing the worker’s wages and hours worked but failed to provide the date of this labor. By the 19^th of September, the owner was served with a notice that they owed the worker his back wages, and had until October 3^rd to make the payment either to the worker himself or mail a check in his name to the DOL.

By October 12^th, the worker once again contacted the DOL because he still hadn’t received the check – more than a full week after the deadline. But even this was not enough to spring the department to action, as they encouraged the complainant to file his own lawsuit.

Said the DOL investigator in an email to the worker: “we cannot close the business or force the employer to pay any back wages, so we encourage complainants to pursue their complaints in court if they desire to do so.”

A Record Keeping Civil Money Penalty was not served against the company from the NC secretary of state until after the worker requested an administrative review in December.  It is estimated that this penalty was $750 USD, roughly six times the original disputed amount in owed wages.

Regardless how “small” the dollar amount of a missing check may be, your work must be paid. The Department of Labor failed to even appear neutral as they closed the case without pursuing any further penal action against the restaurant owner.

The insistence that the worker pursue a lawsuit for the disputed amount was an insult to working class people all over Charlotte. Showing once again that the department of labor cannot be trusted to protect workers. This is just one example of one worker. We know countless more complaints have been ignored by the Department of Labor while companies continue to steal wages from its workers?  Nationwide according to it’s own website in 2024 the US Department of Labor’s budget was over 15 billion dollars, yet last year only 273 million dollars were returned to workers in back wages.  

The working class cannot rely on government agencies to protect their interests.  As long as the ruling class has power the state will be designed to serve their interests. Only through militant collective action can workers defend themselves and fight back against wage theft, poor working conditions, abysmal wages, and the countless other ways that the working class is exploited every day.