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    Legislative Updates & Recaps

    Throughout the legislative session, MCLA staff work to inform the community on upcoming, pending, or impactful legislation as it relates to four policy areas: economic development, education, health, and immigration. We also outline our support or opposition on specific bills in these areas.
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    Economic Development Legislative Update

    6/13/2017 1:43:12 PM

    Economic Development: Our objective is to

    MAKE MINNESOTA A BETTER PLACE FOR LATINO WORKERS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

    Legislative Agenda: MCLA supports legislation that encourages more Latino-owned businesses in MN, reflects the community’s strong entrepreneurial spirit, and that promotes better working conditions and pay for Latino workers.

    Important Legislation in 2017: MCLA supported the Wage Theft Prevention Act

    Bill number? Senate File 1329 & House File 1391

    What is wage theft? Wage theft occurs when employees do not receive the wages owed to them. Wage theft punishes hard working employees, and it is not fair to honest employers whose business must compete against dishonest employers that save money by not paying employees’ their due.

    What will the bill do? The Wage Theft Prevention Act calls for greater efforts to prevent wage theft, additional funding to investigate wage theft complaints, and stricter penalties for employers who engage in wage theft.

    What has MCLA done?

    • MCLA is a member of the Anti-Wage Theft Coalition and has been consulted with as new versions of the Wage Theft Prevention Act were written.

    • MCLA brought Latino community members to meet with their House Representatives about wage theft on the Anti-Wage Theft Day at the Capitol.

    • MCLA coordinated letters of support and testimony for a public hearing on the Wage Theft Prevention Act in the Senate Jobs and Economic Growth Finance and Policy Committee.

    What was the outcome? $1 million dollars in funding to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry in order to hire five new wage theft investigators. The Department of Labor and Industry will now be better equipped to respond to wage theft complaints throughout the state. 

    Additional Work: MCLA supported over $4 million dollars in funding and programming for Minnesota non-profits that work within diverse and immigrant communities to improve economic development outcomes. 

    2017-18 Session

    Economic Development

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