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Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws

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  • Annette Bernhardt
  • Michael W. Spiller
  • Nik Theodore

Abstract

Drawing on an innovative, representative survey of workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, the authors analyze minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace violations in the low-wage labor market. They document significant interindustry variation in both the mix and the prevalence of violations, and they show that while differences in workforce composition are important in explaining that variation, differences in job and employer characteristics play the stronger role. The authors suggest that industry noncompliance rates are shaped by both product market and institutional characteristics, which together interact with labor supply and the current weak penalty and enforcement regime in the United States. They close with a research agenda for this still-young field, framing noncompliance as an emerging strategy in the reorganization of work and production at the bottom of the U.S. labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Annette Bernhardt & Michael W. Spiller & Nik Theodore, 2013. "Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(4), pages 808-832, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:66:y:2013:i:4:p:808-832
    DOI: 10.1177/001979391306600404
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    Cited by:

    1. Alan Benson & Aaron Sojourner & Akhmed Umyarov, 2020. "Can Reputation Discipline the Gig Economy? Experimental Evidence from an Online Labor Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(5), pages 1802-1825, May.
    2. Edwin J. Meléndez & M. Anne Visser & Nik Theodore & Abel Valenzuela Jr., 2014. "Worker Centers and Day Laborers’ Wages," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(3), pages 835-851, September.
    3. Clemens, Jeffrey & Strain, Michael R., 2022. "Understanding “Wage Theft”: Evasion and avoidance responses to minimum wage increases," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Andrew S. Green, 2017. "Hours Off the Clock," Working Papers 17-44, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Jeounghee Kim, 2020. "Informal employment and the earnings of home‐based home care workers in the United States," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 283-300, July.
    6. Paul Edwards, 2015. "Critical social science and emancipation: II, development and application," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 275-292, July.

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