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20 Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J. 71 (2016)
Lofty Laws, Broken Promises: Wage Theft and the Degradation of Low-Wage Workers

handle is hein.journals/emplrght20 and id is 72 raw text is: LOFTY LAWS, BROKEN PROMISES: WAGE THEFT AND THE DEGRADATION OF LOW-WAGE WORKERS BY MATTHEw FRITZ-MAUER* I. INTRODUCTION ..................................... .....72 II. CALIFORNIA'S LONGSTANDING REPUTATION AS AN EMPLOYEE-FRIENDLY STATE...........................76 A. California Progressives and Early Worker Protection Laws........................................78 B. California's Modern-Day, Employee-Friendly Legal Regime ...................................... 82 1. California's Suffer or Permit Definition of Employment..........................83 2. California's Minimum Wage and Overtime Laws.........87 3. Meal and Rest Breaks .......... ..............90 4. Recent Attempts to Combat Wage Theft .................92 5. Conclusion. ....................... ..........94 III. THE PRACTICAL REALITIES OF WAGE THEFT IN EMPLOYEE-FRIENDLY CALIFORNIA.... ...............95 A. The Scope of Wage Theft in California ....................96 B. Wage Claims and Hurdles to Recovery ......... ........102 IV. How CALIFORNIA'S MISLEADING REPUTATION OBSCURES AND EXACERBATES THE PROBLEM OF WAGE THEFT................................. .................108 A. How the Popular Perception of California Obscures Reality ............................ .......... 108 B. Opposition to the WTPA ............11............I C. Opposition to Pre-Judgment Wage Liens...... ......113 * Doctoral candidate, University of California, Irvine, Department of Criminology, Law and Society; J.D. 2015, University of California, Irvine; Law Clerk, Harry T. Edwards, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, 2016-17. I would like to thank Professors Catherine Fisk, Mario Barnes, Kaaryn Gustafson, and Saru Matambanadzo for their enormously helpful guidance and comments on drafts of this article. Many thanks also to UC Irvine's Center in Law, Society and Culture for providing me with a generous fellowship to help me complete this project, to Catherine Fisk and Mona Lynch for administering that fellowship, and to James Peterson for funding it. 71

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