Meghan Lucas

The Project

Meghan (she/her) represents workers in wage theft cases and advocates for improved labor standards enforcement in North Carolina, targeting industries that exploit immigrant workers and workers of color.

Low-wage workers in Charlotte—the largest city in North Carolina—have inadequate access to employment legal services. The Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy is the largest provider of civil legal services in the Charlotte area, and Meghan’s project is aimed at addressing the underlying reasons for many clients’ financial instability. She is working closely with community organizations to identity common forms of wage theft and help low-wage workers recover stolen wages.

Meghan is eager to help workers in her home state push for better working conditions and greater employer accountability for labor abuses.

Fellowship Highlights to Date

In the first year of the Fellowship, Meghan has:

• Recovered wages owed to workers in the healthcare and childcare industries
• Participated in statewide efforts to improve language access for individuals seeking unemployment insurance benefits
• Represented workers in workplace retaliation complaints filed with state agencies
• Provided advice and/or brief service to approximately 45 individuals on employment-related issues
• Collaborated with community partners to better understand industry-specific forms of wage theft
• Delivered presentations on wage theft to community partners to develop a client referral system
• Engaged with a local economic security coalition, as well as regional and statewide coalitions, to expand project reach and impact

Next Steps

In the next year, Meghan plans to:

• Work with community partners to address worker misclassification in the construction industry
• Advise low-wage workers about state retaliation protections and help file complaints with the state Department of Labor
• Continue raising awareness about common forms of wage theft in local policy discussions