Wage theft doesn't get the attention it deserves. Just because it doesn't happen at gunpoint doesn't make it any less of a crime. It basically amounts to employers shortchanging their employees or finding ways to not pay them at all. Farm work is a profession where it's uncomfortably common, but it can happen anywhere to anyone, from nurses who aren't paid overtime to cooks who get less than the mandated minimum wage to injured construction workers who are persuaded not to file for worker's compensation.

Illinois recognizes this. It recently passed what might be the most stringent wage theft law in the country. Sign this petition to urge your state representatives to follow suit with similarly strict legislation that shows no tolerance for wage theft.

Starting next year, employers caught committing wage theft a second time in Illinois will be charged with a felony, rather than the standard misdemeanor. They'll also have to repay the employees they ripped off, with interest.

This isn't just for the protection of a few. The Department of Labor in Illinois gets more than 10,000 wage theft claims each year. As the economy has struggled, instances of wage theft, not surprisingly, have risen. Immoral bosses see a chance to save or make money, so they take it. But they're costing local economies, as well as their workers. In 2008, a staggering 68 percent of low-wage workers (those making less than about $10 an hour, including many immigrants) reported wage theft.

Photo credit: gcfairch