Proposal aims to end wage theft

A new proposal aims to put a stop to wage theft.
The bill introduced Monday by County Legislator David Gelfarb focuses on existing home improvement licensing laws to better protect workers, particularly day laborers.
"They don't know how to assert their rights necessarily and many of them may be undocumented. They just don't know how to protect themselves,” says Gelfarb.
A Port Chester day laborer who goes by the name Mariano says he spent a year and a half working on a private construction job. He realized he was owed an additional $3,000 when it was over.
"He kept saying he was going to pay me, he was going to pay me. I had to look for other work. I was never paid," he says.
From 2012 to 2015, there were over 1,200 wage theft cases filed in Westchester County. Only 40 percent of those were actually resolved.