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Enforcing Labour Standards in Fissured Workplaces: The US Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

David Weil
David Weil*
Affiliation:
Boston University School of Management; Transparency Policy Project, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
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Abstract

The employment relationship in a growing number of industries with large concentrations of low wage workers has become ‘fissured’, where the lead firms that collectively determine the product market conditions in which wages and conditions are set have become separated from the actual employment of the workers who provide goods or services. Instead, the direct employers of low wage workers operate in far more competitive markets that create conditions for non-compliance. We examine this evolution in employment and its implications for public policy in the US, discuss the factors driving fissured employment and sketch its main features and outcomes. We then look at the traditional methods used for labour standards enforcement in the US and discuss why they are poorly suited to address fissured workplaces. Finally, we survey how public policies might better address the realities of the modern workplace, including efforts in this regard by the Obama administration.

Keywords

J31J38J81J88K31Complianceenforcementfissured employmentlabour standardsregulation
Type
Symposium
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 22 , Issue 2: Minimum Labour Standards and Their Enforcement , July 2011 , pp. 33 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2011

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