California’s labor laws are some of the country’s toughest, offering hourly workers in the Golden State high minimum wages, strict overtime protections, paid sick leave, and more. Yet a new report finds the laws are routinely broken and that there is a large under-reporting gap among workers who experience violations.
The report, by the , based at Harvard Kennedy School and the University of California-San Francisco, found more than nine out of 10 of the hourly workers they surveyed experienced at least one labor violation. About two in five workers experienced a loss of earned income, and the same share of workers were blocked from accessing paid sick leave.
“California has some of the most progressive labor standards in the county,” said Daniel Schneider, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and co-director of the project, which documents the economic security, schedules, and health and well-being of hourly workers across the country. “These standards are designed to raise the floor on job quality for some of the hardest working Californians. But violations of these standards by employers are routine.”
Between January and March of this year, researchers surveyed 980 California workers employed at 98 of the largest service sector companies, asking them about their work conditions, including pay, work hours, and access to leave. They also surveyed an additional sample of 74 similar but recently unemployed workers.
“California has some of the most progressive labor standards in the county. These standards are designed to raise the floor on job quality for some of the hardest working Californians. But violations of these standards by employers are routine.”
The study found that:
46% of workers experienced one serious violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, such as working off the clock, not receiving required overtime pay, not being paid for all of the hours worked, being paid less than the minimum wage, or not being paid earned bonuses, tips, or for paid time off.
41% experienced violations of their mandated paid sick leave. Of these, 12% did not have access to paid sick leave at all, and an additional 29% reported employer practices that violate the standard, such as requiring workers to take more than two hours of paid leave at a time, requiring medical documentation, or paying workers less than their usual hourly wage.
58% experienced paid rest break violations, which allows paid break time depending on the length of a worker’s shift—ranging from 10 minutes of paid break time for every shift between 3.5 and 6 hours long to 30 minutes for every shift over 10 hours.
“These workers have been robbed, of their time and of their wages,” Schneider said. “But, the vast majority do not come forward and when they do, they are far more likely to report this theft to the perpetrator than to the agencies charged with investigating and remedying the situation.”
Of the surveyed workers who described violations, just 23% made a report. Most of those turned to their own employer, and only about 2% turned to local, state, or federal authorities.
But reporting had its own costs, with more than half of workers saying they suffered some form of employer retaliation, including a reduction of working hours, worse schedules and tasks, and even unsafe work tasks. The largest share of those who did not report violations, 39%, said they didn’t think doing so would make a difference, although 20% said they did not know how to report violations, and 13% said they did not even know that they had suffered a violation of labor law.
The findings, the study concludes, “suggest that workers need more accessible ways to come forward when faced with labor standards violations and demonstrate that labor standards enforcement is a continual and crucial component in making legal entitlements a reality.”
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Banner image by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Image.