Day Laborers

Day laborers, like many other workers in the United States, are protected by federal and state employment laws that govern wage and hour conditions, workplace health and safety, and the right to workplace organizing. But across the country, day laborers and other immigrants find that their status as excluded workers is enforced by local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), often in collaboration with employers.

While day laborers are in theory covered by US laws, the General Accounting Office found that the Labor Department's efforts to enforce the protection provisions for day laborers are severely hampered by the complaint-driven investigative process and the short-term nature of the work.

Some of the most egregious examples of employers calling in the police or immigration authorities have come from the South, in particular the Gulf Coast. Recently, federal immigration agents visited Louisiana oil-spill command centers and checked workers' immigration status at the request of the St. Bernard Parish sheriff's department, which said that it was "concerned about criminal elements" coming into the area.

Demographics. On any given day, at least 117,600 workers in the United States are either looking for day-labor jobs or working as day laborers. The day-labor workforce in the United States is predominantly immigrant and Latino/a. Most day laborers were born in Mexico (59 percent) and Central America (28 percent). Three-quarters (75 percent) of the day-labor workforce are undocumented migrants. About 11 percent of the undocumented day-labor workforce have a pending application for an adjustment of their immigration status.

Wages and Hours. Day labor pays poorly. The median hourly wage for day laborers is $10. However, employment is unstable and insecure, resulting in volatile monthly earnings. Even if day laborers have many more good months than bad ones, it is unlikely that their annual earnings will exceed $15,000, keeping them at or below the federal poverty threshold.

Benefits. Only 6 percent of injured day laborers interviewed in the National Day Labor Survey had their injury covered by workers' compensation insurance. Day laborers working for homeowners are excluded from workers' compensation in many states via exemptions for "casual labor."

Health and Safety. Workplace injuries are common among day laborers. One in five day laborers has suffered a work-related injury, and more than half of those who were injured in the past year did not receive medical care.

Forms of Work. The vast majority (79 percent) of hiring sites are informal: workers stand in front of businesses (24 percent), home improvement stores (22 percent), gas stations (10 percent) and on busy streets (8 percent). Most of these sites are near residential neighborhoods. One in five (or 21 percent of) day laborers search for work at day-labor worker centers. Day laborers are employed primarily by homeowners/renters (49 percent) and construction contractors (43 percent). Their top five occupations include construction laborer, gardener and landscaper, painter, roofer, and drywall installer.

Compliance with Labor Laws. Day laborers regularly suffer employer abuse. Almost half of all day laborers experienced at least one instance of wage theft in the two months prior to being surveyed. In addition, 44 percent were denied food, water or breaks while on the job. One third of the day laborers surveyed had been abandoned on the job, and one-quarter of the workers had suffered violence at work. A more recent survey focused on day laborers in New Jersey found that 96 percent had suffered wage violations.

Projected Growth. While certainly not all day laborers are hired in construction, construction is the most common occupation for day laborers in the United States, with landscaping a common occupation as well. The construction industry is expected to grow by 535,000 workers by 2016.

Discrimination. Day laborers have become a symbol of illegal immigration in the United States and a target for vigilantism; government policies have added to their isolation and to their status outside the protection of the law. In Arizona, where anti-immigrant laws and rhetoric have reached a fever pitch, so-called "crime suppression sweeps" against immigrant communities by Sheriff Joe Arpaio began at a furniture store where day laborers searched for work.

In its most recent iteration, Arizona state law SB 1070 creates both new violations of the law that affect only day laborers searching for work and new state immigration crimes, and also expands the power of police to enforce immigration law (including civil infractions). The bill's stated intention is to make it so difficult to live in Arizona that illegal immigrants flee the state rather than risk arrest. To accomplish this, the bill encourages racial profiling. Recent studies show that in Arizona, African-American and Latino drivers were 2.5 times more likely than white drivers to be searched after being stopped by the highway patrol. Native American drivers were 3.25 times more likely to be searched, even though they were less likely to be found with contraband. On July 28, 2010, a federal judge in Arizona made a preliminary decision that the law was pre-empted by federal law and enjoined parts of it.

JOSUE's STORY

After Hurricanes Gustav and Ike forced people living on the Gulf Coast to evacuate, I was recruited to work along with 11 other workers from a day-laborer corner in New Orleans. The employer promised us good work, fair wages, safe conditions and housing in Texas. We believed him. He transported us to Beaumont, Texas — an area hit hard by Hurricane Ike, where the residents had still not been able to return.

When we arrived in Beaumont, we were horrified. We were forced to live in tents in an isolated labor camp at an abandoned oil refinery. We were made to work in toxic conditions without safety equipment. We were subjected to racist and dehumanizing treatment. After we risked our health doing the most dangerous work, the company would send in white workers with safety equipment and protections to finish the rest of the job. They thought we Latinos were disposable workers.

So we organized. When we protested the discrimination and illegal treatment, our employer evicted us from the labor camp in the middle of the night without pay. There was nowhere to go — outside the labor camp there was only devastation for miles around. We demanded the wages he owed us for our work. But he called local police and ICE. We were arrested immediately. Instead of enforcing our labor rights against the company, the police and ICE tried to turn us into criminals.

I spent 78 days in jail for demanding the $250 in unpaid wages. Our arrest was based on lies the employer made to retaliate against us for speaking out. We fought to make the District Attorney recognize this — and we won. She withdrew all of the charges. We should have been released. But ICE detained us.