A new study has been released, developed in part with help from researchers at the University of Illinois, which documents the real plight of minimum wage workers in America. Titled "Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers," this research paints a grim picture of how the least among us are cheated out of money and time, and deprived of their rights, all illegal activities under federal and state law.
Based on interviews of over 4,000 low-income workers in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, this comprehensive peek into the bottom-rung of the working class shows widespread minimum wage, overtime, meal break, off-the-clock, tipped job, and employer retaliation violations. As an example of the severe impact to income, 60% of workers with minimum wage infractions were underpaid by greater than $1 per hour. Some were paid up to $4/hour less than the minimum wage.
Seriously injured workers were either threatened with firing or were actually dismissed for reporting the accident to their employer or contemplating worker's compensation. Of those sustaining serious injury, only 8% filed claims - the rest were either frightened or intimidated into taking no action.
As a professional businessperson, this information is both shocking and disgusting. If you can't operate a business without cheating and/or menacing the poorest, least advantaged people - people, by the way, who are willing to work for the absolute minimum pay and benefits under the law - then it would be wise for you to pursue your criminal career by first undertaking some advanced training. May I suggest the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois?
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