Publications Section
Progress Notes

EMPLOYMENT: Low-Wage Workers

In cities across the nation, low-wage workers toil under the harshest of conditions. A new report by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project and UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that almost all of the 4,400 low-wage employees surveyed describe workplaces in which both laws and basic human rights are routinely violated.

The study, financed in part by the Joyce Foundation, also found that two-thirds of the workers experience wage violations—either receiving less than minimum wage, working overtime without proper compensation or not being paid for hours worked outside regular shifts.

The report details three key principles that respond to the findings: strengthen government enforcement of existing labor laws; update legal standards for the 21'st century; and establish equal status for immigrants in the workplace.

In This Issue

Joyce Foundation Home Page
© 1998 – 2006, The Joyce Foundation. All Rights Reserved