Denver Auditor’s Place of work says it recovered $2.1 million in unpaid wages for employees within the final yr

The Denver Auditor’s Place of work accumulated greater than $2 million in wages illegally withheld from employees all over the place of work’s 2024 fiscal yr, officers mentioned this week.

The report ultimate tally of greenbacks recovered for employees whose employers didn’t pay wages they had been owed was once $2.07 million, in step with a information unencumber put out Wednesday by way of the impartial wing of town executive. That was once in line with the length from November 2023 throughout the finish of October.

The volume rather exceeded the $2.04 million overall the auditor’s Denver Hard work place of work recovered all over its 2023 reporting yr.

The place of work recovered wages on behalf of four,505 employees — every other report that eclipsed the 2023 overall by way of greater than 1,000 other people, in step with the place of work.

“Those results compel us to proceed our efforts for the hundreds of people who nonetheless want our lend a hand,” Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien mentioned in a observation. “Whether or not a person receives loads or hundreds of greenbacks in restitution, that’s cash that are meant to were of their pocket on payday to pay their expenses and improve their households.”

In 2022, the Denver Hard work place of work additionally set a report for recovered bucks with $1.1 million. The near-doubling of that overall in every of the final two years got here at the heels of the Denver Town Council’s passage of a civil salary robbery ordinance in January 2023.

That ordinance gave the place of work the facility to levy heavy fines and fee 12% pastime on unpaid wages if violations of pay regulations had been discovered.

Some of the 753 circumstances that Denver Hard work closed final yr that led to restitution bills, a overwhelming majority — 694 — handled mispayments of prevailing wages, in step with the inside track unencumber. Prevailing wages are minimal pay ranges that town units for contractors and subcontractors acting paintings on public structures or on behalf of town; they’re upper than the minimal salary in different scenarios.

The auditor’s place of work highlighted a big prevailing salary decision towards City Height, town’s number one early life homeless safe haven supplier, in Wednesday’s unencumber, with out figuring out a particular overall.

The nonprofit finished paintings previous this yr on a brand new 60,000-square-foot safe haven on South Acoma Boulevard. However the auditor’s place of work discovered employees had been underpaid for his or her paintings at the construction as it was once misclassified as a residential mission as a substitute of a extra commercially centered “construction” mission.

Tasks with the latter classification include the next prevailing salary as soon as town investment is concerned. City Height officers mentioned a miscommunication ended in the underpayment they usually all the time supposed to pay employees somewhat.

Whilst City Height officers steered the reclassification of the mission would upload $2.1 million on most sensible of the mission’s $37 million price ticket, the auditor’s place of work has thus far accumulated simply over $356,000 that was once integrated in its 2024 restitution overall.

That overall may building up all over the 2025 fiscal yr as extra contractors who labored on City Height’s construction put up essential data, officers mentioned Thursday. However the auditor’s place of work’s estimates for overall unpaid wages at the mission had been nonetheless smartly under $2.1 million.