Six New York construction companies illegally paid white workers more than minorities who had the same jobs, a state lawsuit alleges. White workers earned an average of $25 per hour, while blacks netted $18 per hour and Latinos took home only $15 per hour, according to the suit filed by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Since 2002, pay discrepancies at at least ten different construction sites scammed minorities out of $4 million in wages and overtime.
All of the firms implicated in the lawsuit are run by Michael Mahoney, a contractor who the Daily News accused last year of issuing black market crane-safety permits to untrained construction workers in the aftermath of two fatal crane collapses .
