Two years ago, Julio got a job painting apartment buildings in Miami. He was promised $15 an hour and scheduled to work 10 hours per day.

Almost immediately after Julio started, he noticed something fishy with his paychecks. He got paid for one week of work, then two weeks went by and he got paid for another week of work. The first time it happened, Julios boss denied that any pay was missing. When it happened again, his boss reminded him that he was undocumented and threatened to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if he kept complaining.

After two months of sporadic pay, Julio quit. He found a pro bono lawyer and filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade Wage Theft Program . But even though he had documented proof of his employment terms and his colleagues were willing to testify about Julios wage theft as well as their own, the chances of getting any compensation were slim.

Thats because it is shockingly easy for employers to steal from their workers, and its impossibly difficult for workers to do anything about it.

In order to agree to take his case, the wage theft program required Julio to prove that he was an employee rather than an independent contractor. The understaffed agency couldnt provide translations of legal forms or offer assistance with gathering evidence from Julios employer. If he wanted to take the case forward, he would have to take time off work from his new job which would mean losing wages again and hope his former colleagues would also be willing to testify on his behalf during work hours.

The deeper Julio got into the process, the more hurdles appeared. The wage theft program initiated a mediation process, but Julios employer didnt show up to meetings and didnt respond to requests to turn over evidence. Even after Julio won his case, his employer ignored the order to give him the wages he was owed. Julio had to file a lawsuit in civil court and pay a series of hefty administrative fees to force his employer to pay him back.

Its been six months since I won my case and I still dont have my wages, Julio said through an interpreter. Due to fears of jeopardizing his current job, Julio declined to use his real name. Its an unfair system, but I know were going to win.

Julios story is disturbingly typical for low-wage and hourly workers in the United States. For crimes committed against employers, such as robbery or vandalism, the justice system delivers punishments that are swift and severe. For crimes committed by employers, however, the justice system provides accountability mechanisms that are slow, weak and tedious and its the responsibility of their victims to navigate them.

If a worker takes $50 from a cash register, his employer can call the cops and have the entire force of the state come down on him the same day, said Oscar Londoo, Julios lawyer and a staff attorney for the Community Justice Project, a pro bono legal services NGO. But if the same employer steals thousands from his workers, its on them to spend months or even years pursuing justice.