By Progressive States Network on June 6, 2012 Full report (PDF) Appendices (PDF) To view the full report PDF, click here and to view the appendices, click here. The role of workers’ rights and workplace protections in the economic recovery has been hotly debated in state legislatures since 2010. Conservative leaders argue that labor regulations…
By Tim Judson, Workers’ Rights Policy Spet at Progressive States Network | Source: HuffingtonPost.com | Posted: 06/07/2012 5:19 pm
Co-authored with Cristina Francisco-McGuire
This week, we authored a report grading states on how well they protect a fundamental workplace right: getting paid what you are legally owed. This right is so basic and common-sense that most people are still unaware of how commonly it is violated.
Wage theft, or the illegal underpayment of workers, has become so widespread, it affects millions of workers across the country and is nearly ubiquitous in certain industries: retail, restaurants, ity, day-labor, warehousing, child care, and construction. That’s a lot of people — already not getting paid enough — whose bosses illegally make their paychecks even lighter.
The last time a detailed, multi-state survey was done, the findings were shocking. Researchers in three of our nation’s largest cities interviewed thousands of workers who earned at or near the minimum wage, and found a wide array of workplace violations. Here are just the basic facts: