Fair Wage Program Ignites Fox News Hysteria
 |
|
It seems like Fox News, always on the ball, just discovered the “We Can Help” outreach initiative the Labor Department launched in early April to inform workers about their pay rights and put a stop to wage theft. Faux News is now ranting against the department’s efforts to enforce the nation’s wage and hour laws.
We Can Help is a multilingual campaign aimed at low-wage and vulnerable workers with a special focus on reaching employees in such industries as construction, janitorial work, hotel/motel services, food services and home health care. It also will address such topics as rights in the workplace and how to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division to recover wages owed.
Report: Wage Theft, Labor Law Violations Widespread Across Country
 |
|
As we celebrate America’s workers this weekend, a new study shows how hard it is for low-wage workers to make a decent living because their employers engage in wage theft and break laws on pay.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with 4,387 workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City, a group of respected academics estimates that 68 percent of the workers surveyed are routinely denied proper overtime pay and often are paid less than minimum wage. The average low-wage worker lost more than $2,600 in annual income due to the violations, 15 percent of their yearly earnings.
The study, “Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers,” was released earlier this week. The three city surveys were conducted throughout 2008 in eight languages by researchers at the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the University of California-Los Angeles, University of Illinois-Chicago, Cornell University and Rutgers University.
Those surveyed are employed in various low-wage industries, including retail, restaurants and grocery stores, carwashes, building services and industrial laundries, home health care, child care, construction, warehousing, transportation and garment manufacturing.
