The Los Angeles Worker Center Network (LAWCN) strongly condemns the City of Los Angeles’ decision to drastically cut staffing at the Office of Wage Standards (OWS) and abandon long-overdue reforms to fight wage theft. These actions are a betrayal of the city’s most vulnerable workers—many of whom are immigrants, women, and low-wage laborers who kept Los Angeles running during the pandemic and now face deepening exploitation.
The city’s proposed FY 2025–26 budget eliminates nearly half of OWS personnel, including 13 of 20 minimum wage investigators, all while declining to take up structural reforms long proposed by community and labor leaders, including LAWCN. These cuts are not just numbers on a spreadsheet—they are a green light to wage thieves and a retreat from justice.
LAWCN warns that this decision will lead to increased labor violations, trafficking risks, and international embarrassment as the city prepares for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics.
We call on Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council to reverse these dangerous cuts, restore critical enforcement positions, and finally enact the reforms Los Angeles workers deserve. Wage theft is a crisis. The city’s inaction is a choice—and a shameful one at that.