Stealing Work (Dishonest Employers)

Everybody talks about Hispanics “stealing” work from honest, hardworking Americans. But I’ve noticed a trend lately and it involves employers stealing work from employees. My husband, Julian did not start out as an American citizen, but is now legal to work in the U.S. and is on his way to becoming a citizen. He’s worked jobs on farms, in construction, in factories and has seen a different side to this employment issue. It seems, in my opinion that many employers don’t want honest, hardworking Americans in their employment. I mean, after all, why would they want an American working for them. Americans want to get paid fairly, they want medical benefits, vacations, etc. An employer can hire a Mexican to work for them, promise to pay them over several weeks time, then let them go without paying them and just hire more Mexicans to repeat the process. It’s more common that you think. Over the past several years, my husband has been looking for honest, gainful employment, but the norm for Hispanic workers seems to be that they are given the hardest jobs for the least pay (or no pay at all). Of the dozen or so jobs Julian has gone to over the past several years, more than half of them (more likely about 2/3rds of them) have been with dishonest employers seeking free labor.


My husband has always been a hardworking man. He loves to sweat and always gives 110% on any job he does. This may be to his DISadvantage in today’s America. One of the first jobs where he, my son-in-law and several of Julian’s friends worked together was the worst. They were hired by a man from Virginia named Ron White who was working for a man in Pinehurst, North Carolina. The first 3 weeks, Julian was given only $25 each week for gas. Each week, Ron promised him he would pay him what he was owed the following week. Julian had faith in the man’s word and kept working for him. My son-in-law was (as far as I know) never paid what he was owed and left Ron’s employment after about a week of working for him. After the first 3 weeks with no pay, Ron did pay Julian part of what he owed him up to that point. It went on like that for nearly 5 weeks. It ended with Julian and I driving all over Moore County, North Carolina hunting this man down to try and get some of what he was owed. If memory serves me well, I think Ron gave him about half what he actually owed Julian altogether.

I did an Internet search of Ron White and found out that he had fled Virginia after scamming a home-owner out of a large amount of money for a project he never even started. He was not even supposed to be doing any type of contracting work and in fact, his contracting license had been revoked. Last we heard, he had done the same thing (he done with my husband and his friends) to a group of Hispanics who were working for him and they went in and UNDID the work they had done ! I say good for them and I wish I had been there to see the look on that dirty contractor’s face when he came in on Monday morning and saw all the cabinets and drywall gone from the house he was building.

Several odd jobs after the one with Ron, Julian went to work for another contractor in whom he put all his trust once again. Same story, different thief. This time, it didn’t take him but 2 weeks to realize he wasn’t going to get paid for the work he was doing.

I could right a full length book on all the dishonest employers my husband and his friends have encountered, but I won’t waste time telling the same story over and over again. I’ll just say, my point is, how is this possible in our technically advanced society ? Where are the watch dogs who make sure employers aren’t scamming employees out of FREE LABOR ? How can there be so many and no one notices ?

I know. I know. Part of it is because the workforce they are scamming is made up largely of undocumented workers, BUT my son-in-law is not Hispanic. He’s an American citizen and he got scammed by an employer. My son was also a victim of ruthless employers. He went along with his stepfather to several jobs where they were never fully paid for the work. It seems to be mainly in the construction industry, but I’m sure it happens in other fields as well.



Does having a business license mean you also have a license to scam ?