Do you think we have labor laws and divisions to protect you from outright theft of your wages? Think again.
The GAO investigated the Department of Labor, Wage and Hour division, now under the Obama administration and found the DOL is simply blowing off workers with legitimate complaints on getting ripped off on unpaid wages.
The GAO report, Wage and Hour Division Needs Improved Investigative Processes and Ability to Suspend Statute of Limitations to Better Protect Workers Against Wage Theft, details this investigation.
Nearly every occupation has the gap — the seemingly unbridgeable chasm between the size of the paycheck brought home by a woman and the larger one earned by a man doing the same job.
It doesn't matter where the job lies on the income spectrum: all but a handful fall below the bar of equal pay. The percentage gap is about the same for lower-wage workers, like medical assistants, as it is for higher-wage workers, like physical therapists.
They have a nice, interactive graph which shows the details on the wage gap.
The article states the reason is good old fashioned discrimination but then refers to personal choices.
It is fairly well understood by anyone living in statistical reality that illegal immigration is fueled by economics. Since the United States does not enforce it's immigration laws, illegal labor could earn more money in the United States and employers loved the cheaper wages, no workman's comp, no unemployment benefits and no taxes.
So, now that the economy is falling apart illegal labor is going home.
Will this help the unemployment statistics and wage levels for U.S. legal unskilled labor? It's yet to be seen but at least the economic realities of what causes massive influxes of illegal workers is being made quite clear for the majority. Of course the multi-billion dollar underground drug economy is a whole other ball game.
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