EPI’s Celine McNicholas sent the following letter to Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx regarding the issue of joint employership.
The Honorable Virginia Foxx
Chairwoman
Committee on Education & the Workforce
U.S. House of Representatives
Dear Chairwoman Foxx,
During yesterday’s Full Committee hearing on Redefining Joint Employer Standards: Barriers to Job Creation and Entrepreneurship, you stated that you “don’t know a bad employer.” You went on to explain, “I’m sure they’re out there, but I sure don’t run into them. I hear horror stories all the time from the other side, but the employers I know care about their workers.”1
It is fortunate that you have had the opportunity to engage with employers who care about their workers and treat them well. However, I want to share some recent research from my colleagues at the Economic Policy Institute so that you are fully aware of the challenges many workers face in exercising the rights and freedoms guaranteed them under the labor and employment laws over which your committee has jurisdiction. I am attaching research that documents that employers steal billions from workers’ paychecks each year. This report found that in the 10 most populous states in this nation (of which North Carolina is the sixth), 2.4 million workers lose $8 billion annually (an average of $3,300 per year for year-round workers) to minimum wage violations—nearly a quarter of their earned wages. In fact, in North Carolina, 12.3% of all low-wage earners experienced minimum wage violations. This figure does not include the share of workers who experienced violations of health and safety laws or unlawful employer action to discourage workers from joining a union.
I hope that you will take the time to review and consider this important research as you address the issues facing our nation’s workers.
Celine McNicholas
Labor Counsel, Economic Policy Institute
CC: The Honorable Bobby Scott
Ranking Member
Committee on Education & the Workforce
U.S. House of Representatives
1. https://www.bna.com/lawmakers-alternate-universes-n73014461636/
