This is the second of two posts on wage theft and how it hurts workers, families, and communities. You can read the first post here.

Corporations’ widespread use — and abuse — of forced arbitration in employment contracts allow them to steal billions of dollars from workers every year with impunity. Employers have unilaterally imposed mandatory arbitration agreements onto 60 million American workers, and the practice is only becoming more widespread. By 2024, 80 percent of nonunion workers will be subject to forced arbitration.

Those same employers cheat their workers out of billions by paying lower than the minimum wage, denying workers overtime wage rates, coercing employees to work “off the clock” before or after shifts, denying workers legally mandated breaks, confiscating tips, and more. Corporations rob workers of an estimated $15 billion per year through minimum wage violations alone, but the real extent of wage theft is likely even higher because wage violations are almost entirely unreported.

The surging costs of housing, transportation, utilities, and food exacerbate the burden of wage theft on workers and their families. Americans deserve a full and impartial opportunity to recover stolen wages, and current legislation sitting in the U.S. Senate must be part of …