Welcome to ‘Korrupt Kathy’s’ New York—Where Wage Theft is A-OK?
Home care workers fighting to recover stolen wages denounce Governor Kathy Hochul in Brooklyn on Feb. 5. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Fed up New York City home care workers ripped off to the tune of more than $25 million called on state Labor Department employees today to “defy” Governor Kathy Hochul and properly enforce existing labor law mandating restitution for wage theft victims.
“We know there are good workers in there,” Council Member Christopher Marte [D-1st District] told more than 100 home care workers rallying outside the DOL’s offices at 55 Hanson Place in Brooklyn on Thursday morning. “We’re asking you to defy Governor Kathy Hochul’s stoppage of enforcing the law. Just do it for the good of people—do it for the good of New Yorkers—do it for the future of our city.”
Before leaving office last year, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander identified American Business Institute [ABI] and Royal Care as two of the worst sweatshop bosses in the city fleecing home care attendants working 24-hour shifts more than $25 million between 2020 and 2022 alone.
In 2023, the New York State Department of Labor informed home care worker Dellanira Soto that she was owed more than $330,000. Soto spent five years working round-the-clock shifts for Royal Care while only being paid for roughly half the time she worked. Home care workers like Soto can claim full pay for the 24-hour shifts they work if they do not get at least five uninterrupted hours of sleep.
Home care workers demanding to recover more than $25 million in stolen wages flood the street outside the New York State Dept. of Labor’s offices at 55 Hanson Place in Brooklyn on Thursday.
“Based on the information you supplied on your claim form we have computed a tentative wage underpayment due to you of $221,340.00,” the state DOL wrote to Soto on April 19, 2023. “The Department has also assessed 50% Liquidated Damages to this amount, which makes the total amount due $332,010.00.”
“Royal Care destroyed my health and stole over $200,000 from me according to the Department of Labor,” Soto told Thursday morning’s rally in Brooklyn. “I filed a DOL complaint along with many other women workers that are here today—but because Governor Hochul’s corruption we still not have seen a dime of our stolen wages.”
“I filed a DOL complaint along with many other women workers that are here today—but because Governor Hochul’s corruption we still not have seen a dime of our stolen wages.”
In 2023, the state DOL under Governor Hochul also spiked a wide-ranging, multi-year wage theft probe into the home care industry. Home care workers and their supporters say Governor Hochul actually derailed that investigation in an effort to protect powerful nonprofit organizations providing home care—including the Chinese-American Planning Council—who would otherwise be on the hook for stolen wages owned to workers.
“It was a political decision,” Assembly Member Ron Kim [D-Queens] told Work-Bites in September, 2023. “We feel strongly that the Department of Labor should enforce the law.”
New York City Council Member Chris Marte is sponsor of the “No More 24” bill that Lt. Governor-candidate Adrienne Adams consistently opposed at Speaker.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Gerald W. Connolly subsequently annulled the DOL’s decision to cancel the wage theft probe started in 2019. Governor Hochul, however, continues to challenge that decision.
Lander spoke out at Hanson Place rally on Thursday morning wearing a red NYSNA hat in solidarity with striking New York City nurses. The former comptroller, now challenging Rep. Dan Goldman’s seat in New York’s 10th Congressional district, said that he was angry and that both ABI and Royal Care stole home care workers’ money.
“This is not just the workers saying it—this is the Department of Labor saying it,” Lander continued. There were complaints. They were investigated. They found that ABI had stolen $14.5 million and that Royal Care had stolen $10.5 million. But what good is the Department of Labor finding that they stole the wages if they don't enforce the law and get that money back—and put it in the workers’ pockets?”
Council Member Marte is sponsor of the “No More 24” bill in the New York City Council. That long languishing bill seeks to set the maximum working hours any employer could assign to a home care attendant at 12 hours within any 24-hour period.
Originally introduced back in 2022, Marte’s “No More 24” bill has never seen the light of day despite widespread support because former City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams consistently opposed it and kept it suppressed.
Former NYC Comptroller and current Congressional candidate Brad Lander speaks out is support of home care workers fighting wage theft.
“We write the laws to make sure that working class people have a right to a good job, a good home, and good health,” Council Member Marte said on Thursday. “But what does the law matter if we can't get it enforced? That's why we're here asking DOL to respect elected officials and the laws that we write. Respect the process—and finally—respect the workers who actually have done the work.”
This week Governor Hochul, who initially assumed the governorship in 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgraced, tapped former City Council Speaker Adams to be her running mate in the upcoming gubernatorial race.
Her first lieutenant governor—former State Senator Brian Benjamin—was indicted on corruption charges and subsequently resigned. Antonio Delgado—Governor Hochul’s current lieutenant governor—is now challenging her for the top spot and supports home care workers in their wage theft fight.
“When the government fails to enforce the law or appeal a decision that would hold bad actors accountable it sends the wrong message to workers who are already carrying so much,” Delgado said in December. “Every hour worked must be an hour paid. Enforcing labor law is not optional. It’s a moral obligation.”
A spokesperson for Governor Hochul told Work-Bites in an email on Thursday afternoon that she is committed to “ensuring our workers receive any wages they are owed.”
“Why is Governor Kathy Hochul supporting violence against women?” Home care workers in Brooklyn this week say, “Shame On Kathy Hochul.”
“Our home care workers play an invaluable role in the lives of New Yorkers, and that is why Governor Hochul has remained a champion for home care workers, making unprecedented investments in home care wages, increasing the minimum wage for home care aides, and securing $13 billion for home care wage increases since 2023,” the spokesperson said.
Lander further said that government’s failure to enforce labor law in the home care industry not only cheats those workers out of their wages, it also tells “all these other companies you can steal your workers wages and there wont’ be any consequences.”
“We're demanding that DOL Commissioner [Roberta] Reardon and the Department of Labor just do their job to enforce the law, and demand that ABI and Royal Care give the money back that they stole from those workers—and get it back in the workers pockets where it belongs,” he said.
The state DOL declined to comment on this story.