Strategic Leverage: Use of State and Local Laws to Enforce Labor Standards in Immigrant-Dense Occupations

In Strategic Leverage: Use of State and Local Laws to Enforce Labor Standards in Immigrant Dense Occupations, the authors focus on how to further improve regulation of immigrant dense and low-wage industries by examining existing innovative strategies employed by different states and localities. The report identifies misclassification, outsourcing and deregulatory shifts in federal policies as factors depriving both U.S.-born and immigrant workers of their basic labor rights. The authors argue that strengthening private and federal enforcement alone is not sufficient to tackle the deteriorating labor standards in the informal job market. Rather, creative municipal and state level measures offer greater promise of success. The report presents several case studies illustrating use of these approaches, including targeted enforcement efforts, data-driven investigations, criminal prosecutions of employers that engage in violations of labor laws, and partnering with private stakeholders and federal agencies. In California and New York, for example, targeted enforcement of civil law was used to prevent wage theft and the mistreatment of employees in the fast-food industry, while also enabling the state to gain millions of dollars through settlements. Likewise, by using its authority to launch criminal prosecutions, Florida was successful in reducing payroll fraud within the construction industry. The report offers several recommendations to improve labor standard enforcement, including maximizing the use of local powers, utilizing data to target fraud investigations, and strengthening stakeholder engagement. (Ayse Alkilic for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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