January 24, 2006

National Day Labor Study Exposes Abuse

Day laborers across the United States experience police harassment, wage theft, physical abuse by employers and dangerous working conditions, according to a the first national study of day labor, conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago with UCLA and New York's New School.

Over three years, the researchers surveyed 264 hiring sites in 143 municipalities in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Interviewers asked about the workers’ educational backgrounds, family lives, occupational histories and experiences as day laborers.
 
"Coming into the study, we knew that the low-wage market is rife with violations of basic labor standards, but we still found the statistics shocking and disturbing," said Nik Theodore, an assistant professor of urban planning and policy and director of UIC's Center for Urban Economic Development.
 
"The goal was to document a population that, though quite visible on the corners of U.S. cities, is poorly understood by the public and by policy makers. We hope to inform policy debates so that decision-makers can devise thoughtful and effective strategies for resolving many of the problems that day laborers face," he said.

Using statistical methods pioneered in studies of the homeless, the researchers produced a statistically valid profile of day labor despite the shifting nature of the population.

The survey results indicated that:

--Once confined to coastal cities, day labor now exists in small towns
throughout the country.
 
--More abuses in nearly every category occurred in the Midwest than in other regions--perhaps because of the higher number of dangerous roofing jobs, Theodore said.
 
--Although day labor is widespread, these workers number only about
117,600—-about one-tenth the size often reported.

--Wage theft is the most common abuse, with nearly half of all workers having been denied payment in the two months prior to the survey.
 
--In the two months leading up to the survey, 44 percent of day laborers were denied food, water and breaks; 32 percent worked more hours than initially agreed to with the employer; 28 percent were insulted or threatened by the employer; and 27 percent were abandoned at the worksite by an employer.

--Day laborers suffered violence at the hands of employers, fellow day laborers and bands of youths who know that the workers are paid in cash.
 
--In the year leading up to the study, 20 percent of day laborers were injured on the job. Of those, two-thirds missed work as a result. They missed an average of 33 days and worked in pain for an average of 20 days. More than half did not receive the medical care they needed for the injury because they could not afford health care or because the employer refused to cover the worker under workers’ compensation insurance.
 
--Three-quarters of day laborers are undocumented immigrants-—a small fraction of the estimated 7 to 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Seven percent of day laborers were born in the U.S.

--Forty percent of day laborers have been in the U.S. for more than six years.

--Married men make up 36 percent of day laborers. Another seven percent live with a partner. Nearly two-thirds have children.

--Many day laborers engage in community activities. More than half regularly attend church, one-fifth are involved in sports, and more than one-quarter participate in community worker centers.

The day labor market is driven less by illegal immigration than by employers, the researchers reported. Employers serving a growing demand for home improvement are under pressure to cut wages and benefits. More than two-thirds of day laborers said they had been hired repeatedly by the same employers, including construction and landscaping contractors.
 
The researchers call for greater worker protections, better monitoring of safety conditions, increased access to legal services, and strategies to help day laborers move into better jobs. They advocate immigration reforms such as normalization of the immigration status of undocumented workers.

"Many day laborers believe that avenues for enforcement of labor and employment laws are effectively closed to them," said Abel Valenzuela, UCLA associate professor of urban planning and Chicana/o studies and director of UCLA's Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.
 
Employers often intimidate such workers by threatening to turn them over to immigration authorities, Theodore said.

“Even when employers do not make these threats overtly, day laborers, mindful of their undocumented status, are reluctant to seek recourse through government channels. We want to change that,” he said.
 
The study was funded by the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region’s Washington Area Partnership for Immigrants, and UCLA’s Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.

- UIC -