Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Why do employers cheat low wage workers?

If the wage is so low, why scrape a few pennies from them? Along with the previous post. The idea of hate crimes, and with stealing from people who get paid very low wages doesn't sound humane.

If the workers making minimum wage are being shafted, can you imagine what happens to undocumented workers?

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Low-Wage Workers Are Often Cheated, Study Says


Published: September 1, 2009
New York times

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. link to complete NYT article

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