September 2, 2009
Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a new study based on a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68 percent of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week.
"We were all surprised by the high prevalence rate," said Ruth Milkman, one of the study’s authors and a sociology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the City University of New York. The study, to be released on Wednesday, was financed by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes and Russell Sage Foundations.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The Ford, Joyce, Haynes and Russell Sage Foundations' report is aptly titled Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America's Cities.
Two provocative sections are entitled: The Prevalence of Workplace Violations in America’s Cities and Wage Theft in America’s Cities.
The sort of employers who tended to cheat:
Violation rates varied significantly by industry. For example, minimum wage violation rates were most common in apparel and textile manufacturing, personal and repair services, and in private households (all of which had violation rates in excess of 40 percent). Violation rates were substantially lower in residential construction, social assistance and education, and home health care (at 12 to 13 percent). Industries such as restaurants, retail and grocery stores, and warehousing fell into the middle of the range, with about 20 to 25 percent of their workers experiencing a minimum wage violation.
Violation rates also varied significantly by occupation. For example, childcare workers had very high minimum wage (66 percent) and overtime (90 percent) violation rates. More representative were occupations such as cashiers, who had a minimum wage violation rate of 21 percent and an overtime violation rate of 59 percent.
http://nelp.3cdn.net/...
Of course, America's inherent sexism and xenophobia rears its ugly head:
Women were significantly more likely than men to experience minimum wage violations, and foreign-born workers were nearly twice as likely as their U.S.-born counterparts to have a minimum wage violation.
As an older woman with an education who has never cracked the stifling ceiling over low-wage workers, I am very angry. It just figures!
God Damn You! America! for your goddamned stinginess!
But I, and other low-income workers are not the only ones who suffered:
Wage theft not only depresses the already meager earnings of low-wage workers, it also adversely impacts their communities and the local economies of which they are part. Low-income families spend the large majority of their earnings on basic necessities, such as food, clothing and housing. Their expenditures circulate through local economies, supporting businesses and jobs. Wage theft robs local communities of this spending, and ultimately limits economic growth.
I am firmly convinced that the biggest kick in getting our lagging economy going would be to give every low-income worker a $2/hour raise. The money would be returned several times in value to our economy.
And unions must be restored to their former power and labor given more of a voice in the conduct of our nation's business. This is class warfare, pure and simple, corporations and money vs. people.