A wide-ranging survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago conducted to look at violations of minimum wage and overtime pay showed extensive violations of the law in the last decade. The investigation reveals that Latino workers suffer more minimum-wage and overtime pay violations that any other ethnic group. The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) denounced these violations and asked that the Department of Labor enforce these laws with all employers.
The study, which included 4,387 workers in various minimum-wage industries, discovered that workers in general were earning 15 percent less. It was also found that race, gender, and migratory status play an important role in determining the groups that tend to be at risk for labor violations. Latino immigrant workers confront the most violations of the legal standard for minimum wages, at 35.1 percent compared with 7.8 percent faced by their white colleagues. The situation is worse for women, as 40 percent of Latinas were receiving less than minimum wage, compared with 32.8 percent for all Latinos. Most of these violations occurred among undocumented workers (37 percent) compared with 21.3 percent of documented workers.
The problem of violations of the overtime pay laws is even more serious – 80 percent of immigrants (documented and undocumented) and 77.6 percent of Latinos, both US-born and foreign-born, did not receive overtime pay due them.
This reality not only applies to the cities that were included in the study and have a large Latino population: New York (27 percent), Chicago (26 percent) and Los Angeles (47 percent). It is well documented that this type of violation occurs throughout the country, and we can expect that these numbers are even higher in rural areas. It is important to enforce labor laws equally to be able to unite workers and negotiate their labor rights collectively.
"Unions have the ability to reestablish a healthy and fair balance to work. The Employment Free Choice Act (EFCA) [when employees have a choice to join a union] is key to creating legislation that will improve the conditions of working families," said Milton Rosado, National President of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA).
Under current conditions, working families are fighting, and a loss of 15 percent of their salaries is unacceptable.
"Although this report underscores violations of the Salary Law in minimum wage industries, federal labor laws ought to be imposed to protect workers in all sectors to prevent the exploitation of the most vulnerable, such as immigrant workers," added Jason M. León, executive director of LCLAA.
"Documented and undocumented workers are much more likely to be victims of overtime pay violations, since 80 percent of the immigrants surveyed reported being affected. This discrepancy shows the importance of pushing for a fair and humane immigration reform," said Hector E. Sanchez, director of Policy and Research at LCLAA.
The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement is the headquarters of the Latino labor movement. LCLAA is a national Latino organization that represents the interests of 1.7 million Latino union members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. LCLAA was founded in 1972 and is the primary national organization in the country for Latino workers and their families. LCLAA advocates for the rights of all workers who seek justice in the work place and their communities. LCLAA is a group that represents Latino workers that belong to the AFL-CIO as well as the Change to Win Federation.
