May 20
2025
Local DAs don’t prosecute wage theft cases
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Wage theft — the practice of an employer withholding pay or benefits from a worker — has been considered a felony crime in New York since September 2023.
Yet in the 20 months since, not a single prosecutor in the eight counties of Western New York has brought a single case under the statute.
It’s not for a lack of offenders.
Data from state and federal labor investigators shows that at least a dozen cases have met the $1,000 threshold of felony larceny since the law changed.
Cases from October, November and December 2023 show eight employers were found to have withheld more than $47,000 from 19 workers, an average of $2,494 each, according to the data. Cases for the first five months of 2024 show an additional four employers failed to pay five workers $62,508, an average of $12,502 each.
“It is not surprising at all to me,” labor attorney Candace Morrison, of the firm Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, said.
Morrison noted that she attempted, to no avail, to get local district attorneys to prosecute wage theft cases both before and after the law changed.
“It’s a difficult concept, for whatever reason, to get district attorneys offices to buy into,” she said.
Watch our original report from March 25.
Michael Keane, Erie County District Attorney, said it isn’t just a Western New York issue. He said he spoke to his counterparts in Onondaga, Albany and Suffolk counties and found that they, too, have had no felony wage theft cases since the law changed. Keane said his office has yet to be contacted by a victim or have a case referred to them by police or another agency.
“Sometimes there’s no interest on the part of the parties to pursue criminal charges,” he said. “If they can resolve a case with a civil remedy, they get their wages, that doesn’t mean they also want to assist in a criminal prosecution.”
Some downstate DA’s do prosecute, however.
Joseph Damiani, a spokesperson for the Nassau County District Attorney, said that office pressed charges against two restaurant owners in November on wage theft charges. And Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced an indictment against the owner of a construction firm in January.
Keane suggested the lack of prosecutions may be due to a lack of education. Workers may know they can file wage theft complaints with the state or federal labor departments, but not with police or district attorneys.
“If nobody’s reporting it to us, or they’re not reporting it to a police agency, then there’s nothing for us to investigate,” he said.
Since September 2023, the state Department of Labor said it has referred 19 wage theft cases to other agencies for criminal prosecution. Spokesperson Christine Buttigieg said those referrals are the result of close collaboration with law enforcement and represent cases where prosecutors felt they could successfully win a conviction.
Nicole Turso, a spokesperson for the Nassau County District Attorney, said that office has received referrals pertaining to prevailing wage violations but not minimum wage offenses. Kait Munro, spokesperson for the Erie County District Attorney, said that office has received no referrals from the labor department.
‘No records exist’
Following a March report on widespread wage theft in the region, Investigative Post filed freedom of information requests with the district attorney offices in all eight Western New York counties seeking information on prosecutions. DAs responded by saying they had nothing to share.
“Our office has not received any criminal complaints related to wage theft and as such there are no documents or records in our possession which we could provide in response to your request,” Genesee County District Attorney Kevin Finnell wrote.
Wyoming County District Attorney Vince Hemming said: “I have been with the Office since well before October 1, 2023, and am unaware of any wage theft cases that were prosecuted by this Office or complaints made by affected workers or referrals by State agencies since that date.”
Orleans County District Attorney Susan Howard reported: “No records exist responsive to your request.”
Staffers for the district attorneys in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties all relayed similar messages.
Donate to support our nonprofit newsroomWhile the state law was changed in 2023, prosecutors could have previously used other felony statutes to charge businesses with wage theft. For example, Damiani, of Nassau County, said that office pursued criminal charges in three cases where employers failed to pay prevailing wages, returning $325,000 to affected workers.
Over the past decade, state and federal labor investigators have settled 669 wage theft cases in Western New York where the amount withheld from workers met a felony threshold. Nearly 500 of those cases occurred in Erie County, while 79 occurred in Niagara County. Brian Seaman, Niagara County District Attorney, declined an interview request for this story.
Morrison agreed that the lack of prosecutions may be a matter of victims not knowing they can file police reports and seek criminal charges.
“Workers don’t necessarily think, ‘My boss didn’t pay me overtime this week. That’s wage theft, that’s stealing. My boss stole from me,’ ” she said.
But prosecutors may also be dragging their feet because such cases can be complicated and unflashy, she said. Sometimes the person withholding wages is a manager in charge of payroll, not the owner of a company.
“You need someone who’s alleged to be a guilty party. From a visual standpoint, you need someone in handcuffs to do a perp walk,” she said.
Civil prosecutions an option
Even without a specific felony wage theft law, some district attorneys elsewhere were already prosecuting such cases. Nassau County, for example, won six civil cases.
Attorney General Letitia James’ office, too, has pursued civil actions against employers. A spokesperson for her office said the office has recovered $358 million for workers over the past year-and-a-half.
Those cases spanned from a $290 million settlement with Uber to a $10,000 case for Manhattan hip-hop dancers. Delivery drivers, Rikers Island custodians and cell phone sellers were among the other workers obtained pay through her civil actions. A spokesperson for her office said the AG typically needs a referral from an outside agency to press criminal charges.
While such cases can make workers whole, Morrison said they don’t necessarily prevent bad behavior in the future. Some employers consider such settlements to be a cost of doing business, she said.
What’s needed is a successful prosecution that sets an example.
“I hope that would open the door to, ‘Okay, here’s how we do it,’” she said. “Here’s how we prosecute wage theft as a crime.”
