"Even as the ranks of low-wage workers have swelled since the recession,
Democratic and Republican legislatures in more than a dozen states have
quietly slashed funding
for the agencies that enforce minimum wage law. Budget cuts are no
surprise in an era of austerity. Yet the effect of these cuts on
wage-and-hour investigative units—charged with examining and settling
wage disputes—has seriously compromised an essential line of defense for
already vulnerable low-wage earners, according to experts. State labor
officials and researchers around the country tell In These Times that low-wage workers facing abusive employers increasingly have nowhere to turn." [Read more]
