Overhauling State Wage Enforcement: New York Demostration Project
In most states, the system for ensuring compliance with minimum wage, overtime and other basic workplace protections has not changed in decades even as our nation's low-wage industries have been dramatically reshaped by sub-contracting, immigration and other trends that have created new challenges for enforcement. Addressing the problem of growing workplace violations requires rethinking how we use state resources like labor departments and attorneys general to send signals to employers and employees alike that compliance with basic wage and workplace protections is not optional.
To develop models for reform, the Brennan Center has joined in New York with immigrant worker advocacy organizations and the New York State Department of Labor on a model state program for overhauling and modernizing the state's wage and hour enforcement system. Our goal is to develop new policies that can be replicated in other states and, eventually, used to reform enforcement by the U.S. Department of Labor.