The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) hosted a webinar, Enforcing Labor Standards in a Recession: An Opportunity to Support Workers Who Risk Their Lives, on September 30, 2020 discussing the results of a national study on labor standards violations during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The reserach, published by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, provides a cautionary tale for our current recession and shares the following findings:

• The rise and fall of minimum wage violations mirrored that of unemployment;
• Workers earning low wages lost one-fifth of their wages, on average;
• Immigrants, Black, Latinx, and women workers were 1.5 to 2 times more likely to suffer a violation than non-immigrant, white, or male workers – and up to 4 times as likely if they belonged to two of the listed protected classes; and
• An April 2020 survey of California voters showed that many vulnerable workers are unaware of state and federal paid leave protections.

The panelists for the webinar include:

• Daniel Galvin, Associate Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University CIWO Fellow
• Jenn Round, Senior Fellow, CIWO SLSE Project, Former Enforcement Manager, Seattle Office of Labor Standards
• David Weil, Dean of the Heller School at Brandeis, Former Administrator, US DOL Wage and Hour Division
• Michelle Holder, Assistant Professor of Economics, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

The webinar slides can be found here.