Businesses find it increasingly competitive to achieve profits in the current economic environment. Some take illegal measures through wage theft to gain an advantage, a visiting social activist at U-M says.

Wage theft involves violating minimum wage laws, not paying overtime pay, forcing workers to work off the clock or not paying workers at all.

Kim Bobo, the Twink Frey Visiting Social Activist at the Center for the Education of Women, will discuss this topic during a lecture titled “Thou Shalt Not Steal: What You Can Do to Stop Wage Theft” at 5:30 p.m. March 21 at the Ecumenical Center and International Residence (ECIR).

The event is free and open to the public, and food will be provided. Anyone interested in attending should register by March 18 at tinyurl.com/CEWKimBobo.

Bobo’s organization, Interfaith Worker Justice, has helped workers win cases against unfair and illegal business practices. In many states, laws protect workers, but more support is needed to identify and to prosecute wage theft.

People first must identify wage theft to stop it, she notes. Since wage theft is fairly common, often it is hard to recognize. “Developing an awareness of the issue and how it influences individuals, communities and businesses is essential,” she says.

IWJ has mobilized the voice of religious leaders in several Midwest states, including Wisconsin, to oppose bills that would strip public workers of their right to negotiate for fair wages, benefits and working conditions. The ramifications of this current antipublic sector worker climate challenge the rights of individuals, union members and nonunion members, Bobo says.

“There is a lot of work ahead to defend the right to organize within places like Wisconsin, and it is important for me to focus on the progress that can be made,” she says.

Bobo was named one of Utne Reader’s “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” in 2009. She writes a column for the online magazine Religion Dispatches and co-authored “Organizing for Social Change,” the best-selling manual that is used in U-M classes on community organizing.

Event co-sponsors include Canterbury House, ECIR, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Washtenaw County Worker Center, the Graduate Employees Organization and the Institute for Research on Women & Gender. For additional information, call CEW at (734) 764-6343.

Each year, the Twink Frey Visiting Social Activist Program brings to CEW a social justice activist whose work affects women and recognizes gender equity issues. The program, which is made possible through a gift from U-M alumna Twink Frey and her husband James McKay, allows the individual to spend four weeks at U-M to research, plan and write about an area of activism. Bobo is conducting research to update her book “Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid — And What We Can Do About It.”