Kim Bobo and the folks at Chicago's Interfaith Worker Justice have almost single-handedly pushed the issue of wage theft into the national political conversation. Bobo's book Wage Theft in America argued persuasively that, under the Bush administration, lax regulation in the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division failed to prevent some employers in low-wage industries from withholding earned wages and benefits. As a result, 2 million workers are paid less than the minimum wage, 3 million are wrongly classified as independent contractors instead of employees, and millions more are illegally denied overtime pay.

A new report (PDF) by the Government Accountability Office backs up her claims. Half of the complaints that the GAO  lodged with the division weren’t even recorded. When claims were taken up, they were often "delayed by months or years.” Now lawmakers in Washington have taken notice.

Last Thursday, Rep. George Miller (D-California) introduced the Wage Theft Prevention Act (H.R. 3303). Co-sponsored by Illinois' own Rep. Phil Hare, the bill would freeze the statute of limitations on wage theft investigations from the date an employer is informed of an inquiry until the agency alerts the employer that the investigation has been completed. This change would ensure that delays won't result in a permanent loss of back pay for workers seeking grievances. We'll be tracking its progress.