DENVER (KDVR) — A record high amount of wages were restored to thousands of workers in the 2025 reporting year, the Denver Auditor’s Office announced Monday.
The Auditor’s Office said its Denver Labor division closed 859 cases in the 2025 reporting year, which ended Oct. 31, restoring a record $2,310,009.82 back to 7,200 workers who were owed.
The office said it audited more than 100,000 payroll records and found wage violations across various industries.
Here is some of the data the office released:
- Steakhouse restaurant – $70,010.71 for 44 workers paid below minimum wage.
- Real estate company – $28,803.09 for two employees paid below minimum wage.
- Nail salon – $27,794 for 14 employees paid below minimum wage.
- Barbershop – $23,240.76 for 21 workers who had the tip credit illegally claimed.
- Yoga studio – $16,509 for 66 employees who had sick leave pay violations.
Denver Labor also put more work into investigating gig app companies in 2025. These platforms typically post on-the-spot work opportunities at warehouses, restaurants and more, where workers then pick up work and get paid. The office said 1,467 workers at Veryable were misclassified as independent contractors, had sick leave violations or were otherwise underpaid for their work, and similar wage theft happened to 849 workers at Qwick.
The numbers show a significant increase in wage theft restitution by Denver Labor over recent years.
The auditor said wage theft is an ongoing problem in Denver and common examples include violations around minimum wage, overtime, prevailing wage, paid sick leave, rest breaks and independent contractor misclassifications.
Last year, the auditor’s office commissioned the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University to do an assessment on the impacts of wage theft across the community, which found that thousands of workers in the metro area are paid below minimum wage. The auditor’s office said this issue persisted through 2025 and will continue into 2026.
“We encourage anyone who may have had wages stolen to contact our office. Workers
may submit anonymous complaints. We do not ask about immigration status,” the auditor’s office said in a press release.
Workers can find wage resources and can report possible wage theft and complaints to the auditor’s office online.
Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.
