Study Describes Restaurant Industry's "Race to the Bottom"

The Chicagoland Restaurant Industry Coalition, a group of academics, workers rights advocates, unions and restaurant owners and employees brought together by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Chicago, has released a report entitled "Behind the Kitchen Door: The Hidden Costs of Taking the Low Road in Chicagoland's Thriving Restaurant Industry". According to the report, a living wage (pay that would allow a worker to support him/herself and a family without government assistance) is about $16.48 an hour. Unfortunately, more than 80% of restaurant workers in the Chicago metropolitan area reportedly make less than $10 an hour, with worker as fast food restaurants averaging only about $9 an hour. The report also notes that a majority of workers reported minimum wage and overtime violations, health and safety issues and other serious legal violations at the restaurants where they work, while more than a quarter reported working "off the clock" without pay. In this news article about the study, one author describes the restaurant industry's "race to the bottom" with regard to treatment of their employees. A copy of the study, as well as similar data for other metropolitan areas, can be found here.

Another Study Confirms Rampant Wage Theft Among Low Wage Workers

A study recently released by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment examined the frequency of labor and wage abuses against low-wage workers in the Los Angeles area. According to the study, a substantial portion of Los Angeles County workers at the bottom of the labor market are the victims of wage theft and other workplace violations, which on average deprive workers of 12.5 percent of their weekly paycheck. Approximately 88 percent of those surveyed reported at least one instance of being paid less than the minimum wage, working overtime and not being paid for it, working off-the-clock for free, or other pay-based violations during the previous work week. More than 30 percent of those surveyed were being paid less than the legal minimum wage for California, or $8/hour. A complete copy of the study is here.

FLSA Compliance Myths Debunked

This article contains a nice summary of a number of common myths regarding the FLSA's overtime requirements. Among the myths discussed: 1) salaried employees are not eligible for overtime; 2) employees can agree to work overtime without overtime pay; 2) managers and supervisors are not entitled to overtime; and 4) in calculating overtime hours, it is acceptable to average work hours over two weeks.