Workers and Poverty
For many Americans, a job is not enough to ensure economic well-being. While some low-income workers struggle to make ends meet because of low-paying jobs, many others are impoverished because their employers fail to comply with laws designed to protect workers’ income and benefits. Even in the United States, a country which has had a long-standing system of laws to ensure proper compensation, it remains true today that millions of low-wage workers are underpaid or not paid the wages they are legally owed. The problem affects low-wage workers in nearly every industry. For example, day laborers often find themselves hired for a single job and then never paid the full amount they are owed. Similarly, child farm workers, the majority of whom are either U.S. citizens or legal residents, are too often paid as little as $2 per hour for working 12-hour days.
Further, the laws designed to protect workers are violated when employers misclassify employees as independent contractors, which can result in lower wages and insufficient benefits. Misclassification hurts low-income families and the U.S. economy. According to the Government Accountability Office, in 2006 worker misclassification resulted in approximately $2.72 billion in lost revenue from unpaid Social Security, unemployment and income taxes.
This section of the Spotlight website gathers the latest research, news and opinion on workers and poverty from experts in the field, policy makers and the media.
Find the latest academic and government reports on workers and poverty. Click Here >
Read up to date workers and poverty news compiled by Spotlight. Click Here >
Find out what leading national figures, experts and advocates are saying about workers and poverty in these exclusive Spotlight commentaries and newspaper opinion pieces. Click Here >
Check out a compilation of other key resources on the intersection of workers and and poverty. Click Here >