Under the Radar: Tracking the Violation of Labour Standards in Low-Wage Industries in the US

Theodore, Nik; Bernhardt, Annette; Filippis, James De; Milkman, Ruth; Heckathorn, Douglas D.; Auer, Mirabai; González, Ana Luz; Narro, Victor; Perelshteyn, Jason; Polson, Diana; Spiller, Michael W.

doi:10.1007/978-0-230-37023-4_13

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The American literature examines the more extensive diffusion of HCWs in three large cities, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Theodore et al (2012: 210–214) track labour standards in low-wage US industries in the three cities and report significant wage theft violations from car wash workers. A third of workers in the sector are paid less than the legal minimum wage for tipped workers, and many suffer underpayment of more than $1 per hour, where wage theft by employers translates into 15% of earnings.…”

Section: The Hand Car Wash ‘Sector’mentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights into informal migrant employment: Hand car washes in a mid-sized English city

Clark

Colling

2016

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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This article provides new analytical insight into migrant labour by examining a newly emergent low-margin sector, hand car washes (HCWs). The sector is co-created by pressures from above in the form of economic restructuring and from below by employers and migrants who diffuse fluid and flexible low-wage employment. The diffusion of HCWs demonstrates how exploitative privatized employment generates autonomous economic growth in the unregulated economy. The formal and informal economies are however interlinked and overlapping within and beyond the labour process. Locally, HCWs have the potential to become the established car wash sector, putting regulated outlets in a state of uncertainty as informalization in employment if not business practice becomes the norm.

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Section: The Hand Car Wash ‘Sector’mentioning

confidence: 99%

New insights into informal migrant employment: Hand car washes in a mid-sized English city

Clark

Colling

2016

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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“…What has received less attention is the extent to which employers are also recalibrating their compliance with employment and labor laws in the search for higher margins. While the lack of representative data and accurate measures continues to be a significant barrier to researchers, an emerging body of evidence suggests that the systematic violation of employment and labor laws is common in a number of low-wage industries (Bernhardt et al 2009;Theodore et al 2012;Weil 2011). Examples of violations include disregarding minimum wage and overtime laws; requiring employees to work without pay before or after their shifts; retaliating against workers filing complaints or trying to organize; maintaining unsafe workplaces; and skirting workers' compensation obligations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws

2012

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Drawing on an innovative, representative survey of workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, the authors analyze minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace violations in the low-wage labor market. They document significant inter-industry variation in both the mix and prevalence of violations, and show that while differences in workforce composition are important in explaining that variation, it is differences in job and employer characteristics that play the stronger role. The authors suggest that industry noncompliance rates are shaped by both product market and institutional characteristics, which together interact with labor supply and the current weak penalty and enforcement regime in the U.S. The paper closes with a research agenda for this still young field, framing noncompliance as an emerging strategy in the reorganization of work and production at the bottom of the U.S. labor market.

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“…measures continues to be a significant barrier for researchers, an emerging body of evidence suggests that the systematic violation of employment and labor laws is common in a number of low-wage industries (Bernhardt et al 2009;Weil 2011;Theodore, Bernhardt, and DeFilippis 2012). Examples of violations include disregarding minimum wage and overtime laws; requiring employees to work without pay before or after their shifts; retaliating against workers filing complaints or trying to organize; maintaining unsafe workplaces; and skirting workers' compensation obligations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws

Bernhardt¹,

Spiller²,

Theodore³

2013

ILR Review

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Drawing on an innovative, representative survey of workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, the authors analyze minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace violations in the low-wage labor market. They document significant interindustry variation in both the mix and the prevalence of violations, and they show that while differences in workforce composition are important in explaining that variation, differences in job and employer characteristics play the stronger role. The authors suggest that industry noncompliance rates are shaped by both product market and institutional characteristics, which together interact with labor supply and the current weak penalty and enforcement regime in the United States. They close with a research agenda for this still-young field, framing noncompliance as an emerging strategy in the reorganization of work and production at the bottom of the U.S. labor market.O ver the past thirty years, controlling labor costs has been a central motivation for low-wage employers to experiment with a range of strategies to reorganize work and production. Researchers have documented the growth of alternative staffing models, various forms of subcontracting and outsourcing, the dismantling of internal labor markets, the cutting or outright abandonment of health and pension benefits, and the adoption of nonstandard pay systems (

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Under the Radar: Tracking the Violation of Labour Standards in Low-Wage Industries in the US

Cited by 5 publications

References 6 publications

New insights into informal migrant employment: Hand car washes in a mid-sized English city

New insights into informal migrant employment: Hand car washes in a mid-sized English city

Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws

Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws

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