Labor & Employment Law

Fair Wage Program Ignites Fox News Hysteria

By Mike Hall

It seems like Fox News, always on the ball, just discovered the ?We Can Help? outreach initiative the Labor Department launched in early April to inform workers about their pay rights and put a stop to wage theft. Faux News is now ranting against the department’s efforts to enforce the nation?s wage and hour laws.

We Can Help is a multilingual campaign aimed at low-wage and vulnerable workers with a special focus on reaching employees in such industries as construction, janitorial work, hotel/motel services, food services and home health care. It also will address such topics as rights in the workplace and how to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division to recover wages owed.

Much to the consternation of Faux News and Republican U.S. Reps. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), Steve King (Iowa) and Ted Poe (Texas), We Can Help reaches out to all workers who are getting ripped off, cheated and screwed out of wages by employers. Yes, all workers, documented and not, including the pesky immigrants who, according to Fox, King, Chaffetz, Poe, a certain Arizona governor and other screeching hysterics, are the root cause of all that?s wrong with our economy.

According to them it?s not employers who hire workers at cut-rate, below-standard wages and then illegally refuse to pay them what they are owed, who are taking away jobs from U.S. workers. Those folks are just clever entrepreneurs. It?s all the fault of the immigrant worker. Because surely employers want to pay fair wages and not undercut U.S. and documented workers?but what?s a boss to do when faced with the option of paying $5 an hour to an immigrant or $15 an hour to a documented worker?

Faux News, et al., complain that it?s ?shameful?insane?astounding,? that taxpayer money is being used to enforce fair wage laws for all workers. First off, it is the law and has been under both Republican and Democratic administrations. The nation?s minimum wage and overtime laws apply to all workers regardless of immigrations status. Secondly, let?s not forget the We Can Help program is recovering wages for citizens and documented workers who are being cheated.

But just as importantly, it makes economic common sense. Here?s what Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis has to say:

First, it ensures that U.S. workers have a level playing field when seeking employment. Consider the lost advantage to U.S. workers when unscrupulous employers purposely pass them over to hire workers who are afraid to file a complaint about not being paid the minimum wage or often not being paid at all.

Second, no employer should gain an economic edge by hiring undocumented individuals who feel that they must accept working conditions below those required by law. Good employers, who abide by the law, should not suffer the consequences of those businesses engaged in a race to the bottom.

What?s so hard to understand? It makes perfect sense to me.

Click here for more on the We Can Help campaign. Also Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) offers a Wage Theft Online Resource Center, which includes a list of resources and information about the wage theft.

IWJ Executive Director Kim Bobo will be a guest on “The Ed Show” on MSNBC this evening. She will be discussing the Fox News-generated controversy about the We Can Help initiative. The show airs 6-7 p.m. EDT. Bobo will be on during the final segment, 6:45-7 p.m.

For a look at how immigration reform is vital to rebuilding the economy, read AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka?s recent speech to the City Club of Cleveland and see video excerpts here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 29, 2010 (boomark / email).