Workers and Poverty Research

Low-wage Lessons
Winning Wage Justice: Talking Points on the Need for Stronger Anti-Wage Theft Laws
Winning Wage Justice: A Summary of Research on Wage and Hour Violations in the United States
Winning Wage Justice: Choosing the Policy Options Right for Your Community
Overlooked and Underpaid: Number of Low-Income Working Families Increases to 10.2 Million
Do Low-Income Workers Benefit from 401 (k) Plans?
Diners’ Guide 2012: A Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants
Creating Unemployment: How Congressional Budget Decisions are Putting Americans out of Work and Increasing the Risk of a Second Recession
Worth Working For: Strategies for Turning Bad Jobs into Quality Employment
Losing Middle America: Understanding Job Polarization and Wage Inequality
Where It Really Hurts: Job Losses for Low-Skill Workers by State
Work-Family Conflict: Look to Employers and Communities for Solutions
The Future of Children Journal: Work and Family
Losing Middle America: From Job Polarization to Wage Inequality
Losing Middle America: The Polarization of Jobs in the United States
Improving Job Quality: Direct Care Workers in the U.S.
Less-Educated Continue to Lose Jobs in Recovery-Even in Low-Wage Industries
First to Fall, Last to Climb: Black Workers in the New Economy
Informal and Nonstandard Employment in the United States: Implications for Low-Income Working Families
The Low Wages of Black Immigrants: Wage Penalties for U.S.-Born and Foreign-Born Black Workers
Rural Workers Have Less Access to Paid Sick Days

Kristin Smith and Andrew Schaefer, Carsey Institute, July 2011

The Need for Paid Sick Days
Work Sharing: Effective in Keeping Workers Attached to the Labor Market
Work Sharing: The Quick Route Back to Full Employment
Pay Secrecy and Wage Discrimination
A Future of Low-Paying, Low-Skill Jobs?
Inventory of Farmworkers Issues and Protections
A Profile of Young Workers (16–26) in Low-Income Families
The Gender Wage Gap: 2010

’Right-to-Work’ Wrong for New Hampshire

Paid Family Leave: What Could a Federal Paid Leave Insurance Program Look Like?

Poor, Pregnant, and Fired: Caregiver Discrimination Against Low-Wage Workers

States Lead the Way: Paid Family Leave in California

The Sad But True Story of Wages in America

Paid Family Leave: Among Developed Societies, The U.S. is an Outlier

Scheduling Hourly Workers: How Last Minute, “Just-In-Time” Scheduling Practices Are Bad for Workers, Families and Business

Paid Family Leave: Why the Family and Medical Leave Act Fails to Meet the Needs of America’s Working Families

San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance: Outcomes for Employers and Employees

Whiter Jobs, Higher Wages: Occupational Segregation and the Lower Wages of Black Men

Waiting for Change: The $2.13 Federal Subminimum Wage
Behind the Kitchen Door: The Social Impact of Inequality in Miami’s Growing Restaurant Industry
Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality & Opportunity in Washington, D.C.’s Thriving Restaurant Industry
Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality and Opportunity in Los Angeles, the Nation’s Largest Restaurant Industry
The Compensation Penalty of ‘Right-to-Work’ Laws

Winning Wage Justice: An Advocate’s Guide to State and City Policies to Fight Wage Theft
36 Cents Short - Wage Gap in Sales and Related Occupations Highest of Any Sector
Leaves That Pay: Employer and Worker Experiences With Paid Family Leave in California
44 Million U.S. Workers Lacked Paid Sick Days in 2010: 77 Percent of Food Service Workers Lacked Access
Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at Work
The BIG RIG: Poverty, Pollution, and the Misclassification of Truck Drivers at America’s Ports
Why a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights?
Honoring the Work: Measure C Hotel Living Wage’s Impact on Workers in Emeryville
Investigating Wage Theft: A Survey of the States (pdf)Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry
Investigating Wage Theft: A Survey of the States (pdf)
Work Schedule Flexibility in Hourly Jobs: Unanticipated Consequences and Promising Directions (pdf)
The Wage Penalty for State and Local Government Employees in New England (pdf)
Recession Hits Workers’ Paychecks: Wage growth has collapsed (pdf)
Where the Jobs Are: A First Look at Private Industry Job Growth and Wages in 2010 (pdf)
Public Attitudes towards and Experiences with Workplace Safety (pdf)
Bad Jobs in Goods Movement: Warehouse Work in Will County, Illinois (pdf)

The Vulnerable American Worker: Our Contingent Workforce Exposes Weaknesses in the American Social Contract (pdf)
Picked Apart: The Hidden Struggles of Migrant Worker Women in the Maryland Crab Industry (pdf)
Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture (pdf)
Just Pay: Improving Wage and Hour Enforcement at the United States Department of Labor (pdf)
Wage Theft and Workplace Violations in Los Angeles: The Failure of Employment and Labor Law for Low-Wage Workers (pdf)
Working Without Laws: A Survey of Employment and Labor Law Violations in New York City (pdf)
United States: The Employee Free Choice Act, A Human Rights Imperative
Unions and Upward Mobility for Asian Pacific American Workers
The Unions of the States
The Haves and Have-Nots: How American Labor Law Denies a Quarter of the Workforce Collective Bargaining Rights
Why Unions Matter (pdf)
Congressional Testimony -- Department of Labor: Case Studies from Ongoing Work Show Examples in Which Wage and Hour Division Did Not Adequately Pursue Labor Violations
Congressional Testimony -- Fair Labor Standards Act: Better Use of Available Resources and Consistent Reporting Could Improve Compliance (pdf)
Facts and Figures on Florida Farmworkers (pdf)
The National Agricultural Workers Survey
Modern Day Slavery in U.S. Agriculture: Legal Failure and Corporate Complicity (pdf)
Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers