Protecting Low-Wage Workers From Exploitation: A Mapping Study of Wage Theft Laws in the 40 Largest US Cities.

This article examines the features of local and state wage theft laws in the 40 largest U.S. cities from 2010 to 2023, focusing on how local legislation complements or enhances state laws in protecting workers. Wage theft laws regulate minimum wage and nonpayment of wages, with local laws more likely than state laws to include provisions that facilitate worker complaints—such as education about rights, protections against retaliation, and evidentiary support—and to impose innovative enforcement mechanisms including monetary and nonmonetary penalties. Although some states preempt local wage theft laws, only four of the largest cities face total preemption, indicating that many cities could enact or strengthen local protections. The study provides publicly available legal data sets to support further research on the health impacts of wage theft regulation and highlights the potential of local laws to improve health equity by addressing wage theft more robustly.