Since I couldn't write it better myself, I borrowed the New York Times' headline to this story by Steven Greenhouse, which reports on a study finding that 68 percent of low-wage workers had experienced a pay-related violation in the previous week.In surveying 4,387 workers in various low-wage industries, including apparel manufacturing, child care, and discount retailing, the researchers found that the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339. That translates into a 15 percent loss in pay.The researchers said one of the most surprising findings was how successful low-wage employers were in pressuring workers not to file for workers’ compensation. Only 8 percent of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for compensation to pay for medical care and missed days at work stemming from those injuries....“These practices are not just morally reprehensible, but they’re bad for the economy,” said Annette Bernhardt, an author of the study and policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project. “When unscrupulous employers break the law, they’re robbing families of money to put food on the table, they’re robbing communities of spending power and they’re robbing governments of vital tax revenues.”Read the whole thing to get a better flavor of the problems at hand. While the article reminds us the Department of Labor is hiring 250 new inspectors to try to enforce employment regulations more effectively (unsurprisingly, most DOL enforcement offices were drastically underfunded during the Bush administration), that probably won't be enough to stop this kind of thing from happening. If only there was some way to create some kind of countervailing power to keep employers honest, an organization that might unite workers like ... oh, right! ... unions. But don't worry, we don't need to reform labor law to make it easier for for workers to organize unions:
One in five workers reported having lodged a complaint about wages to their employer or trying to form a union in the previous year, and 43 percent of them said they had experienced some form of illegal retaliation, like firing or suspension, the study said.One thing that astonished me was that the study's authors report were surprised by their results. Without adequate supervision by an external force, of course the weakest members of society are taken advantage of. But it ought to make your blood boil -- especially as people decry union thugs "intimidating" people into joining unions when that doesn't happen and most workers want to join a union.
-- Tim Fernholz
Picture of "hamburgerman" demonstrating for health care reform outside the National Restaurant Association (right around the corner from the TAP offices!) courtesy SEIU photostream.
