In a statement that speaks to the efficacy of meticulous oversight, Denver Auditor Timothy M. O'Brien released the 2024 Annual Report highlighting several strides in city audits and recoveries for workers subjected to wage theft. According to the Denver Auditor´s Office, O'Brien's team has efficiently managed to recover over $2 million in back pay for Denver workers, a record number that underscores the office's growing impact.
The report outlined the completion of 24 new audit and follow-up reports, including one that revealed mismanagement in how the city was overseeing homeless shelters' finances. "Our team had a banner year. We hold ourselves to a high-performance standard for the people of Denver, and we are proud to serve with professionalism and deliver strong results benefitting everybody," Auditor O'Brien said, as per the Denver Auditor´s Office. This includes identifying a cumbersome process within Public Safety's emergency medical response and recommending improvements to better serve residents.
Denver Labor, an extension of the Auditor's Office, has similarly been active, now not only recovering wages but also expanding its educational efforts. These endeavors have been particularly noteworthy in high-risk industries for underpayments, such as the gig economy, where the report suggests there may be millions yet in unrecovered wages. The Auditor's examination into these sectors has only just begun to reveal the extensive nature of wage theft affecting the Denver community.
Illustrating the severity of wage theft, Denver Labor also teamed up with the Workplace Justice Lab@Rutgers University to study the broader impacts. They estimated that, between 2007 and 2022, minimum wage violations alone resulted in an annual loss of about $136 million, or nearly $3,000 per affected worker. This partnership sheds light on the pervasive nature of wage discrepancies and the need to continually ensure justice in pay. "There are potentially millions of dollars in wage theft, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead to recover it," Auditor O'Brien said, as obtained by the Denver Auditor´s Office.
