Wage Theft and Labor Exploitation at Trump Properties: Documented Cases of Unpaid Overtime, Tip Confiscation, and Subminimum Wages
Tier 1Documented1980-01-01 to 2019-12-31
Factual Summary
Across multiple decades, workers at Trump-branded properties have alleged, and in some cases proven through legal settlements and government investigations, that they were denied proper wages, forced to work unpaid overtime, had tips confiscated, or were paid below minimum wage. The documented cases span Trump's construction projects, hotels, golf courses, and casinos.
The earliest major case involved the demolition of the Bonwit Teller building in 1980 to make way for Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Trump's demolition contractor employed approximately 200 undocumented Polish workers who worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, without gloves, hard hats, or masks. The workers were promised $4 to $5 per hour but were paid irregularly and sometimes not at all. Some received checks that bounced. A class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the workers, and in 1998, after nearly two decades of litigation, Trump quietly paid $1.4 million to settle the case, which included payments to a union pension fund that had been stiffed. The settlement was sealed for years.
Two of Trump's now-defunct Atlantic City businesses, the Trump Plaza casino and Trump Mortgage LLC, were cited 24 times beginning in 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage. These cases were resolved when the companies agreed to pay back wages following Department of Labor investigations.
At Trump National Doral Miami, a group of 48 servers sued the management company for unpaid overtime after working a 10-day Passover event. The case was settled, with each worker receiving an average of approximately $800.
In 2019, investigations by The Washington Post and other outlets revealed systematic labor abuses at Trump National Golf Club Westchester in New York. Former employees, many of them undocumented immigrants, reported being required to work unpaid hours after clocking out, being denied overtime pay, and being excluded from health insurance, retirement benefits, and vacation days available to other employees. Some workers described being forced to perform "sidework" such as cleaning after their shifts ended without additional compensation. The New York Attorney General's office interviewed more than two dozen undocumented former employees who described these practices.
When the Trump Organization initiated a purge of undocumented workers from its golf courses in early 2019, approximately half of the wintertime staff at the Westchester club was eliminated. The firings came during the federal government shutdown that Trump had precipitated over border wall funding, creating a stark juxtaposition between Trump's public rhetoric about illegal immigration and the labor practices at his own properties.
Similar reports emerged from other Trump golf properties, including Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where undocumented workers described years of employment with management's knowledge.
Primary Sources
1. Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc., 774 F. Supp. 802 (S.D.N.Y. 1991), related to Trump Tower demolition workers
2. Settlement agreement in the Trump Tower Polish workers case, 1998 (initially sealed)
3. U.S. Department of Labor wage and hour investigation records for Trump Plaza and Trump Mortgage LLC, 2005 and subsequent years
4. New York Attorney General investigation of Trump National Golf Club Westchester labor practices, 2019
Corroborating Sources
1. Time: "Read the Legal Settlement Donald Trump Signed in Dispute Over Undocumented Workers," 2017
2. The Washington Post: "At Trump golf course, undocumented employees said they were sometimes told to work extra hours without pay," April 30, 2019
3. NPR: "Undocumented Workers Say They Were Fired From Trump Golf Clubs," January 28, 2019
4. CNN: "Undocumented former Trump club employees say they sometimes worked without pay," May 1, 2019
5. NBC News: "Trump Tower Got Its Start With Undocumented Foreign Workers," 2015
6. The Washington Post: "Trump's golf course employed undocumented workers and then fired them amid showdown over border wall," January 26, 2019
Counterarguments and Context
The Trump Organization maintained that it was unaware of the immigration status of undocumented employees and that it relied on standard employment verification procedures. Regarding wage disputes, Trump's representatives argued that the properties complied with applicable labor laws and that isolated complaints do not reflect systemic practices. In the case of the Polish demolition workers, Trump testified that he did not know the workers were undocumented and could not recall when he learned about unpaid wages. Supporters noted that large hospitality and construction operations routinely face wage claims and that settlements are common business decisions that do not constitute admissions of wrongdoing. However, the volume of documented cases across multiple properties and decades, the $1.4 million sealed settlement over the Polish workers, the 24 Department of Labor citations for Trump's Atlantic City businesses, and the detailed accounts from dozens of workers at the Westchester golf club establish a pattern that extends beyond isolated incidents.
Author's Note
This entry documents cases where the outcomes are either adjudicated or settled, warranting a Tier 1 classification. The pattern is notable for its consistency across decades and property types: construction, casinos, hotels, and golf courses. In each instance, the workers most affected were among the most vulnerable: undocumented immigrants, hourly service workers, and low-wage laborers who had limited ability to advocate for themselves. The contrast between Trump's public stance on immigration enforcement and the documented employment of undocumented workers at his own properties adds a dimension that is difficult to reconcile.