Some minimum-wage workers in the Bay Area lose thousands of dollars every year because employers don’t pay what the law requires. For many, language and cultural barriers stop them from knowing their rights.
Yanfen Li’s parents-in-law worked in San Francisco for about seven years, earning less than minimum wage, to prepare for Li and her family to join them from China. On Friday, she stood with a multilingual coalition at the 24th Street Mission BART Plaza to make sure other San Franciscans heard that minimum wage will rise in July to $18.67.
If minimum-wage workers put in 40 hours per week, they’ll take home an extra $24. The Workers’ Rights Community Collaborative, a publicly-supported coalition of multiracial area nonprofits, worried that some employees won’t know about the raise and wouldn’t be able to advocate for themselves if employers didn’t follow the law. Roughly 25 coalition members came to spread the word.
Bay Area workers lose more than $4,300 per year on average to minimum wage violations, according to a recent report by Rutgers University’s Workplace Justice Lab, which studies how organizations lessen economic inequality. Researchers said the amount more than doubled from 2014 through 2023, “growing particularly dramatically over the most recent year of the study.”
At the rally, MB Salem, a worker advocate with the Filipino Community Center, told the crowd, “Immigrant minimum-wage workers are often the ones short-changed of their rights, due to the challenges of adapting to a new country as well as learning about the new labor laws.”
In each speech — translated into Spanish, Chinese and English — the speaker emphasized the language barrier that keeps many workers from understanding their rights.
A woman with the group Trabajadores Unidos Workers United films a speech at a rally organized by the Workers’ Rights Community Collaborative celebrating the raise in minimum wage at the 24th St. Mission BART Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on June 22, 2024. (Anna Leah/Bay City News) 
Adriana Rendon, an organizer with Trabajadores United Workers United, speaks next to Jenny Huang, of the Chinese Progressive Association, at a rally organized by the Workers’ Rights Community Collaborative celebrating the minimum wage raise at the 24th St. Mission BART Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on June 22, 2024. (Anna Leah/Bay City News) 
Activists with groups like Trabajadores Unidos Workers United wait to pass out flyers to passerby about the new minimum wage next to a rally organized by the Workers’ Rights Community Collaborative celebrating the change at the 24th St. Mission BART Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on June 22, 2024. (Anna Leah/Bay City News)
First: Guadalupe Yam passes out flyers next to a rally. Last: Yanfen Li (second from left) stands with Yam (right) at a rally organized by the Workers’ Rights Community Collaborative celebrating the minimum wage raise at the 24th St. Mission BART Plaza in San Francisco, Calif., on June 22, 2024. (Anna Leah/Bay City News)
Guadalupe Yam handed passerby pale green sheets of paper with “$18.67” written across the top.
Yam, 58, emigrated from Mexico two years ago. He said he didn’t know about his rights as a restaurant worker until Trabajadores Unidos Workers United educated him.
He animatedly tried to catch pedestrians’ attention at Mission and 24th Street and said that he comes from a country where many rights are routinely violated. In Mexico, he worked as a security officer. In San Francisco, he wants to protect his greater community of workers.
In Spanish, Yam said that the groups of the coalition came together Friday because, “We need to continue to fight for the most important workers’ rights.”
Immigrant minimum-wage workers are often the ones short-changed of their rights, due to the challenges of adapting to a new country as well as learning about the new labor laws.
MB Salem, a worker advocate with the Filipino Community Center
Despite not speaking English, Li has tapped groups like the Chinese Progressive Association to access public services. That included moving her family into a three-bedroom apartment using Section 8 vouchers, which assist low-income renters with housing. She said it was a relief to give each of her children their own bedroom after living with three generations in one single-room occupancy unit.
Li works as a domestic care provider. The 40-year-old also began outreaching to her community in San Francisco’s Chinatown for the Chinese Progressive Association.
“I was able to connect with a lot of community organizations and non-profits that really supported me and I felt really cared for. It has made a huge impact on my life,” she said through an interpreter. “I hope that I can help other people now in my world, because other people have helped me.”
Li’s husband earns a minimum wage. She said she looks forward to the raise so she can take her children on more outings. Laughing, she said they really like when she treats them to McDonald’s.
On Monday morning, Li and the coalition rallied at City Hall and give public comments to defend their coalition against a plan to cut their budget in half. The collaborative stresses that the reduction will impact their ability to reach Filipino, Latino, Chinese and other communities in their own language.
