A stunning 24% of workers in the temp industry say they have had their wages stolen from them by their employers, according to a survey, released Feb. 3, that examines cycles of poverty and precarity for the industry’s disproportionately Black and Brown workers.
The findings are based on surveys carried out by seven worker advocacy groups, including the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and Temp Worker Justice, across the country. In the study, 1,337 temp workers in 47 states answered questions about pay, safety, job mobility, workplace discrimination and employer retaliation.
Temporary staff, or temp workers, are hired by staffing agencies to work at a worksite run by a host employer. They typically do the same jobs as their direct-hire counterparts, but often receive less pay and few to none of the same benefits, according to the report.
Today, temp workers in the United States are some of the least protected in the world, even with record-high staffing agency profits and an accelerating demand from companies for temp workers during the pandemic. From April 2020 to November 2021, the volume of temp jobs grew at 2.5 times the rate of jobs in all other private sector industries, according to the report.
Despite already low wages, 24% of workers surveyed reported their wages were stolen either through an employer that paid less than minimum wage, failed to pay overtime, or didn’t pay employees for all hours worked. Wage theft is so common in temp work that it is...
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