Since the economy has started tanking, we have seen an exponential increase in wage theft, which is when workers do not receive a final paycheck upon leaving a job. Unfortunately, this issue is not a small or isolated problem of a few bad employers--but rather a systematic theft of wages from untold millions of the nation's workers.

This week, the TPM Café Book Club is addressing the hosting a running discussion of Kim Bobo's book, Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid --And What We Can Do About It. Bobo, who is the director for Interfaith Worker Justice , calls wage theft an "an epidemic" in the nation, especially in the low-wage labor market. Here's an excerpt from the book:

In what has been described as "the crime wave no one talks about," billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year--a grand theft that exceeds every other larceny category on record annually. Between two and three million workers are paid less than the legal minimum wage...Even the Economic Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank, estimated that companies annually steal $19 billion in unpaid overtime.

Commenting on the issue of wage theft at TPM Café are a plethora of respected progressive voices. NY Times' Steven Greenhouse addresses the prevalence of wage theft at Wal-Mart and other well-known corporations. Nathan Newman writes about the hypocrisy of rightwing politicians largely dismissing the problem and opposing laws to increase enforcement of wage laws--while simultaneously attacking undocumented immigrants as undermining wage standards for native workers. Dean Baker writes about recognizing the problem as one of law enforcement, and Liza Featherstone talks about whether Hilda Solis will be able to force wage theft onto the political agenda.

Visit TPM Cafe's forum at http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/tpmcafe-book-club/