MESSAGE FROM ASSOC PROF PAMELA S EVERS ATTORNEY AT LAW This article has been offered by web posting to UNCW students for educational purposes only Articles posted may have been edited for clarity and format by Pamela S Evers Low Wage Workers Are Often Cheated Study Says 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 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 The conventional wisdom has been that to the extent there were violations it was confined to a few rogue employers or to especially disadvantaged workers like undocumented immigrants said Nik Theodore an author of the study and a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago What our study shows is that this is a widespread phenomenon across the low wage labor market in the United States According to the study 39 percent of those surveyed were illegal immigrants 31 percent legal immigrants and 30 percent nativeborn Americans The study found that 26 percent of the workers had been paid less than the minimum wage the week before being surveyed and that one in seven had worked off the clock the previous week In addition 76 percent of those who had worked overtime the week before were not paid their proper overtime the researchers found The new study Broken Laws Unprotected Workers was conducted in the first half of 2008 before the brunt of the recession hit The median wage of the workers surveyed was 8 02 an hour supervisors were not surveyed with more than three quarters of those interviewed earning less than 10 an hour When the survey was conducted the minimum wage was 7 15 in New York State 7 50 in Illinois and 8 in California Labor Secretary Hilda L Solis responded to the report with an email statement saying There is no excuse for the disregard of federal labor standards especially those designed to protect the neediest among us Ms Solis said she was in the process of hiring 250 more wage and hour investigators Today s report clearly shows we still have a major task before us she said The study s authors noted that many low wage employers comply with wage and labor laws The National Federation of Independent Business which represents small business owners said it encouraged members to stay in compliance with state and federal labor laws But many small businesses say they are forced to violate wage laws to remain competitive The study found that women were far more likely to suffer minimum wage violations than men with the highest prevalence among women who were illegal immigrants Among Americanborn workers African Americans had a violation rate nearly triple that for whites 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 When the Russell Sage Foundation announced a grant to help finance the survey it said that low wage workers were hard to find for interviews and that government compliance surveys shy away from the difficult task of measuring workplace practices beyond the standard wage benefits and hours questions The report found that 57 percent of workers sampled had not received mandatory pay documents the previous week which are intended to help make sure pay is legal and accurate Of workers who receive tips 12 percent said their employer had stolen some of the tips 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 In instances when workers compensation should have been used the study found one third of workers injured on the job paid the bills for treatment out of their own pocket and 22 percent used their health insurance Workers compensation insurance paid medical expenses for only 6 percent of the injured workers surveyed the researchers found
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