One Shot Coffee stole $1,200 in tips from workers, according to the Philadelphia Department of Labor

One Shot Coffee, a Northern Liberties cafe, stole $1,200 in tips from two workers, the Philadelphia Office of Worker Protection says, and it took the company two years to repay one of the workers the amount owed.

City law enforcement was one of 55 wage theft cases the Labor Department’s Office of Worker Protection closed last year. As a result of its investigations, the office, which enforces seven labor laws, recovered more than $180,000 for workers last year, according to a report released this month.

That includes a $24,500 fair workweek agreement with Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse and paid sick leave agreements with St. Christopher’s Hospital and Maxim Healthcare.

According to a 2015 report from the Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple Law University, in any given week, about 130,000 Philadelphia workers experience wage theft.

The One Shot cases show the difficulty of enforcing the city’s seven-year-old wage theft law, which was designed to make it easier for workers to take action against employers who fail to pay workers what they are owed.

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