Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers (9.17.09)
The Horizon Institute, the UCLA Labor Center and the Progressive Jewish Alliance hosted Dr. Ruth Milkman (a Horizon Board Member), Ana Gonzalez and Victor Narro, three of the eight co-authors of Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers, a meticulous study documenting labor law violations that impact low-wage workers. This study, released by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project and the U.C.L.A. Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, is focused on Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. It documents widespread violations of minimum wage, overtime, and health and safety laws, along with harassment and retaliation to prevent workers from asserting their legal rights. Women, African-Americans and undocumented immigrants were found to be particularly vulnerable to these abuses, but all low wage workers were found to be at risk.
In response to this rigorous study, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who will be hiring 250 more wage-and-hour investigators, said “Today’s report clearly shows we still have a major task before us.” (NY Times, September 1, 2009)
In an editorial published on the following day, the Times called this report, “The most comprehensive investigation of labor-law violations in years.”
The study found pervasive violation of minimum wage and overtime law. 26% of the workers sampled had been paid less than minimum wage in the previous week and 60% of those were underpaid by more than $1 an hour. 76% of those who had worked overtime in the previous week were not paid the legally required overtime rate.
As solutions, the authors of the study suggest three crucial policy guidelines. First of all, government enforcement of existing labor laws needs to be strengthened. Second, legal standards need to be upgraded for a Twenty-First Century market. This means, among other things, protection for workers to organize into unions so they will be better able to protect themselves. Finally, strong labor law enforcement depends on status-blind enforcement of labor law as a key aspect of national immigration reform.
