Poster #141 - Safeguarding Labor Rights: The Effects of Worker Centers on Labor Compliance in the United States

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Worker centers are hybrid community-based organizations that support workers through a mix of direct service provision (ranging from legal services to English classes) and political advocacy focused on labor and immigrant rights. They emerged in the 1960s among feminists and civil rights activists and experienced incremental growth in the 1980s and 1990s in response to very low unionization rates and the challenges faced by low-wage workers in the United States. Currently, with 261 worker centers operating across 41 states, these organizations collaborate with federal and state governments to improve enforcement of labor standards, including combating wage theft and enhancing workplace health and safety, sometimes in partnership with unions. As labor regulations face increasing political and administrative constraints due to the shrinking role of the current federal government, and unionization rates remain extremely low, worker centers may serve as an important labor market institution for protecting workers’ rights. Although many qualitative case studies document the significant impact of specific worker centers, quantitative evidence remains limited. This paper is the first to empirically evaluate the causal effects of worker centers on nearby firms’ compliance with labor standards, including minimum wage and occupational safety and health regulations. Utilizing a unique and comprehensive dataset on worker centers, along with compliance data from the U.S. Department of Labor, I exploit the staggered rollout of worker centers across states and conduct a difference-in-differences analysis based on the target group of each worker center. I find that the opening of a worker center reduces violations of minimum wage and occupational safety and health standards among nearby firms, highlighting the significant role of worker centers in safeguarding labor rights for low-wage workers. Moreover, the results show that worker centers complement unions, indicating strong potential for partnerships between worker centers and unions in protecting labor rights. As modern workplace arrangements become more fragmented and precarious, relying solely on top-down government enforcement is increasingly insufficient. This paper indicates that worker centers represent a complementary, bottom-up model that fills critical enforcement gaps by providing robust causal analysis. This has significant implications for policymakers and scholars concerned with labor rights, inequality, and the future of labor regulations in the United States.

Author

• Jie Zhou, Duke University
  Presenting Author