Yesterday’s Advisor reported survey results that show rampant wage and hour violations among low-wage earners. Today we’ll look at more findings of this important survey, and take a look at how you can do your own survey—before the feds do it for you.
Researchers for the Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers survey interviewed 4,387 workers in low-wage industries in the three largest U.S. cities, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. The survey was conducted under the auspices of three research organizations: The Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project, and the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
Here are more findings of the survey (see yesterday’s wage and hour findings).
Illegal Employer Retaliation
One in five workers in the survey sample reported that they had made a complaint to their employer or attempted to form a union in the last year. Of those, 43 percent experienced one or more forms of retaliation, for example, employers fired or suspended workers, threatened to call immigration authorities, or threatened to cut workers’ hours or pay.
Another 20 percent of workers reported that they did not make a complaint even though they had experienced a serious problem. Half were afraid of losing their jobs, 10 percent were afraid they would have their hours or wages cut, and 36 percent thought complaining would not make a difference.
Workers’ Compensation Violations
Of respondents who experienced a serious injury on the job, only 8 percent filed a workers’ compensation claim. When workers did tell their employer about the injury, 50 percent experienced an illegal employer reaction—including firing the worker, calling immigration authorities, or instructing the worker not to file for workers’ compensation.
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Other findings
Workers who were paid a flat weekly rate or paid in cash had much higher violation rates than those paid a standard hourly rate or by company check.
Workers at businesses with fewer than 100 employees were at greater risk of experiencing violations than those at larger businesses.
Women were significantly more likely than men to experience minimum wage violations, and foreign-born workers were nearly twice as likely as their U.S.-born counterparts to have a minimum wage violation.
What Do the Survey Results Mean for HR Managers?
Even if you take the findings with a grain of salt, they still indicate widespread violation of wage and hour and other labor laws. Does that mean it’s happening at your company? It’s likely that some of your employees are working off the clock or not getting the overtime to which they are entitled. So what does the survey mean? It’s time for an audit.
To accomplish a successful audit, BLR’s editors recommend a unique program called HR Audit Checklists. Why are checklists so great? Because they’re completely impersonal, and they force you to jump through all the necessary hoops, one by one. They also ensure consistency in how operations are conducted. And that’s vital in HR, where it’s all too easy to land in court if you discriminate in how you treat one employee over another.
Find problems before the feds do. HR Audit Checklists ensures that you have a chance to fix problems before government agents or employees’ attorneys get a chance. Try the program at no cost or risk.
HR Audit Checklists compels thoroughness. For example, it contains checklists on Preemployment Inquiries: What You Can and Can’t Ask, and also on Preventing Discrimination Against Individuals with Disabilities. You’d likely never think of all those possible trouble areas without a checklist, but with it, just scan down the list and instantly see where you might get tripped up.
In fact, housed in the HR Audit Checklists binder are dozens of extensive lists organized into reproducible packets, for easy distribution to line managers and supervisors. There’s a separate packet for each of the following areas:
- Staffing and training (incorporating Equal Employment Opportunity in recruiting and hiring, including immigration issues)
- HR administration (including communications, handbook content, and recordkeeping)
- Health and safety (including OSHA responsibilities)
- Benefits and leave (including health cost containment, COBRA, FMLA, workers’ compensation, and several areas of leave)
- Compensation (payroll and the Fair Labor Standards Act)
- Performance and termination (appraisals, discipline, and termination)
HR Audit Checklists is available to HR Daily Advisor readers for a no-cost, no-risk evaluation in your office for up to 30 days. Visit HR Audit Checklists and we’ll be happy to arrange it.
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