ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities
By: UCLA Labor Center
The Wage Theft report focused on the prevalence of labor violations in the city of LA and documented these labor violations by surveying 1,815 low-wage workers who held nonsupervisory job positions in Los Angeles County. This report was part of a larger research project in which workers from Chicago and New York City were also surveyed in 2008. A significant aim of the research was to capture the labor violations experienced by unauthorized immigrants and other vulnerable workers who are often missed or excluded in standard surveys.
Some of the labor violations that the report documented included minimum wage violations, overtime violations, non-payment of wages, and the denial of meal and rest breaks. The survey also documented employer retaliation as well as violations of worker’s compensation.
Findings indicated that low-wage workers experience labor violations regardless of their occupation or industry work. Therefore, this research project conducted by the wage theft report identifies policy efforts that would improve the conditions of low-wage workers.
