Rep Mike Honda (D-CA) is pledging to introduce a bill to increase the maximum penalty for wage abuse after news that a Silicon Valley company paid its Indian workers just $1.21 an hour.
The Mercury News reports an order from the US Labor Department has resulted in $40,000 in back wages for the workers and a fine of $3,500 for Electronics for Imaging.
In an op-ed piece also in the Mercury News, Honda wrote:
“Toothless penalties will not stop employers bent on skirting the law. Silicon Valley is about more than well-paid tech employees and Google buses, and if we’re to continue to be the economic envy of the world, we need to ensure that all of our workers earn a fair, living wage.
“That is why one of my first orders of business when I return to Congress will be to introduce a common-sense change in our labor laws. I want to increase the maximum penalty enough to deter unscrupulous employers from contemplating wage abuses against workers. We will send a message that wage abuses are human rights abuses and will not be tolerated by our society.”
The eight employees were brought in from India and hired to install a computer network. They worked up to 122 hours a week and were paid based on wages they made in India.
“During this assignment, they continued to be paid their regular pay in India, as well as a special bonus for their efforts on this project,” said Beverly Rubin of Electronics for Imaging. “During this process we unintentionally overlooked laws that require even foreign employees to be paid based on local U.S. standards.”
You can read Rep Honda’s entire op-ed in the Mercury News.
You can read how authorities discovered the violation of wage law also in the Mercury News.
