For about the past seven months, the D.C. Department of Employment Services has been illegally paying low-income seniors below the minimum wage. And despite complaints from participants in a job training program for residents 55 and older, some of whom noticed the error by coincidence, the issue has not been resolved, and DOES has not notified the participants.
Sandra Broomfield became aware of the issue last fall when she happened to notice that something was wrong with her pay stub. The 62-year-old Northeast D.C. resident has participated in the Senior Community Services Employment Program since March 2023. She works about 20 hours per week at an organization that provides assistance to other seniors, and DOES pays her wages through the program.
Broomfield’s paycheck is typically loaded onto a District-provided debit card, so she doesn’t regularly check her pay stubs. But when she requested a copy last October, she noticed that she was being paid less than the minimum wage. She says DOES hasn’t notified her of the error.
D.C.’s minimum wage went up to $17 per hour as of July 1. But Broomfield is still making only $16.10. And despite multiple attempts to contact DOES about the error, Broomfield says the agency still has not increased her pay or the pay of several other senior employees in the program.
“I started inquiring about it [last fall],” Broomfield says. “And I got the answer that management was working on it. But we’re talking July 1. And I’m sure everybody knew that [the minimum wage was increasing]. I mean, I knew it, and I don’t work there.”
DOES’ oversight is particularly ironic because the agency’s Office of Wage-Hour Compliance is responsible for policing wage and hour violations throughout the District.
A DOES spokesperson did not answer specific emailed questions about why some seniors are not being paid minimum wage, when the issue would be addressed, and whether the agency has notified its senior participants that they are not being paid the legal wage.
“The agency is currently reviewing and will take any necessary steps to address any pay issues regarding the 23 seniors identified in the Senior Community Service Employment Program,” DOES spokesperson Melvin Robinson says via email.
Leni Fortson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, which funds and oversees the SCSEP program, says her agency was first notified of the error less than a month ago on Jan. 30 during a check-in call with DOES. Fortson says via email that DOES “indicated that the issue will be resolved by February 29th,” meaning the SCSEP participants will receive retroactive payments. DOES is also scheduled to provide DOL with an update this week.
The SCSEP program is funded with a $462,821 grant, which Fortson says is not at risk after DOES’ oversight.
Broomfield, for her part, says she has enjoyed participating in the program. But realizing that she was being shortchanged, and with no notification or quick resolution from DOES, has been frustrating.
“We just want to be treated fairly,” she says. “If the minimum wage has gone up, then we all should get the minimum wage, and I feel we should have gotten it in a timely manner. They had to have known. They’re DOES. Who dropped the ball?
“I don’t know how you can overlook the ones who have been a part of the city, and taxpayers and everything else,” she says. “How can you forget the seniors, the voters? You’re a taxpayer, and the District is about the revenue. So how can you short change the ones that have to contribute to that revenue?”