Two proposed city ordinances that had first readings recently seek to ensure that workers of companies that contract with the city are fairly compensated, Musto said. The ordinances are on Wednesday’s commission agenda for second readings and possible votes.
The first proposed measure says workers whose employers do business with the city but who do not comply with the city’s “living wages” ordinance have the right to bring a civil lawsuit against the companies to recover money owed and damages.
That living wages ordinance says, with a few exceptions, the city shall pay a living wage to its full-time permanent employees, and contractors providing direct and substantial services to the city shall do so as well.
The ordinance defines a living wage as an hourly wage that is equivalent to either 100% or 120% of the federal poverty level for a family of four, depending on whether the worker qualifies for single coverage health care benefits or not.
A second proposed piece of legislation would subject bidders on certain public works projects to closer scrutiny and would increase the monitoring of some construction projects.
Bidders will be required to provide additional information, and the city will have greater discretion when deciding which companies to award contracts to, Musto said.
The city also wants to hire a contractor that will conduct compliance investigations at job sites to make sure companies are paying prevailing wages, Musto said.
Companies’ employees will be interviewed and asked what they are paid, and the investigators will make sure the workers are classified appropriately, Musto said.
“Along with that, they are going to review payrolls and job classifications — they are going to investigate complaints as well,” he said.
Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal-leaning research organization, estimates that about 213,000 workers in Ohio are victims of wage theft each year because their employers do not pay the state or federal minimum wage.
The average victim loses about one-quarter of their take-home pay, or nearly $2,900 if they stay on the job a full year, the organization said. That includes both full- and part-time workers.
Elsewhere in Ohio, Cleveland’s City Council passed a wage theft and payroll fraud law in December.
Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw said, “We’ve been working on this for a very long time and I just can’t tell you how important this is — this seems like a thorough process here with some teeth in it, that we will let these general contractors know that we are serious about this and we’ll be monitoring this very, very closely.”
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