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Day labor (or day labour in Commonwealth spelling) is work done where the worker is hired and paid one day at a time, with no promise that more work will be available in the future. It is a form of contingent work.
![House of a day labourer in the Open-air museum Beuren [de], Germany Tagelohnerhaus qtl1.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Tagel%C3%B6hnerhaus_qtl1.jpg/220px-Tagel%C3%B6hnerhaus_qtl1.jpg)
Day laborers (also known archaically as daysmen [1] ) find work through several common routes.
Some employment agencies specialize in very short-term contracts for manual labor, primarily in construction, factories, offices, and manufacturing. These companies usually have offices where workers can arrive and be immediately assigned to a job.
Unions are a second route through which workers find employment. In situations such as an unexpected change in construction plans, an employer may require additional appropriately skilled labor. By contacting a workers' union, the manager can find laborers with appropriate skills. In turn, the union workers have a higher chance of being employed since the manager is able to find workers to employ. Thus, the benefit of union representation applies to both the worker and the employer. [2] [3] Through the union, workers are given a source of recourse to achieve a safe work environment free of favoritism and arbitrary work assignments. Employers benefit from organized labor training programs, benefit plans, dispute resolution [4] and a labor supply meeting labor demand at many times or places. A labor supply arriving at a specified time and location with less than a day's notice results in reduced overhead resources, which benefits the employer. [5] [6]
Less formally, workers offer their work to potential employers such as building contractors, landscapers, home owners, and small business owners. Workers assemble at at well-known locations, such as street corners or commercial parking lots, in the hope of finding such work.
Informal day labor is not new to the United States, and day laborers are not always migrant workers in many cases. In his study of day laborers in Atlanta, Terry Easton interviews white, black, and Hispanic workers. [7] Many other metropolitan areas still have non-immigrant day laborers, and many other large and small cities have immigrant day laborers from a variety of countries, including Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Central and South America, and countries in Africa. Non-immigrant informal day labor, present in many cities, does not generate the controversy or calls to police and local government seen when immigrant day laborers gather to wait for work.[ citation needed ]
Nonetheless, immigrants are a large source of day labor in the United States. Often, day labor work is in small residential construction or landscaping. [8] These workers earn, on average, $8–$10 an hour. The media and a 2005 study by UCLA portrays day laborers as mostly being illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America, [8] who would otherwise be unable to work due to employment regulations. [9] Other research has found that day laborers are not typically illegal immigrants. Many are citizens of the US, and day labor is often a transition to full-time work. [10] : 1–2
Unorganized day labor creates problems for day laborers: 1 in 3 corner day laborers have experienced theft of wages in the past two months and 1 in 5 experienced a serious worksite injury in the past year. Low wages and poor working conditions, employer abuse, and lack of insurance for work related accidents is common. [11] [12]
Some municipalities and communities have supported workers' efforts to organize themselves into democratically run workers' centers, designated areas, and organizations to defend workers' rights in general. Workers' Centers of this kind date back at least 18 years[ when? ] to Los Angeles. Other municipalities have targeted day labor sites for aggressive enforcement of immigration laws.
Though united in their commitment to the rights of immigrant workers, NDLON and the Day Labor Research Institute represent different models of day labor center. NDLON represents the "social service agency model" and the Institute the "day laborer designed model." [13] These different models of day labor centers may yield markedly different results that reflect the different goals of each model. [13]
Problems when workers' centers are established can involve day laborers continuing to congregate in large numbers on the streets surrounding the day labor centers, refusing to leave the street to use the center, [14] and large numbers of day laborers drawn from other areas to the streets surrounding the centers. [10] : 3–4 Low levels of work at the centers, low wages, and problems with the job distribution system are also common. [10] : 6
A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Because minimum wages increase the cost of labor, companies often try to avoid minimum wage laws by using gig workers, by moving labor to locations with lower or nonexistent minimum wages, or by automating job functions. Minimum wage policies can vary significantly between countries or even within a country, with different regions, sectors, or age groups having their own minimum wage rates. These variations are often influenced by factors such as the cost of living, regional economic conditions, and industry-specific factors.
Unemployment, according to the OECD, is people above a specified age not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the reference period.
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other entity, pays the other, the employee, in return for carrying out assigned work. Employees work in return for wages, which can be paid on the basis of an hourly rate, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does, the prevailing conditions of the sector and the bargaining power between the parties. Employees in some sectors may receive gratuities, bonus payments or stock options. In some types of employment, employees may receive benefits in addition to payment. Benefits may include health insurance, housing, and disability insurance. Employment is typically governed by employment laws, organisation or legal contracts.
The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H), that allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. It is the largest visa category in the United States in terms of guest worker numbers. A specialty occupation requires the application of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent of work experience. The duration of stay is three years, extendable to six years, after which the visa holder can reapply. Laws limit the number of H-1B visas that are issued each year. There exist congressionally mandated caps limiting the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year, which is 65,000 visas, and an additional 20,000 set aside for those graduating with master’s degrees or higher from a U.S. college or university. An employer must sponsor individuals for the visa. USCIS estimates there are 583,420 foreign nationals on H-1B visas as of September 30, 2019. The number of issued H-1B visas have quadrupled since the first year these visas were issued in 1991. There were 206,002 initial and continuing H-1B visas issued in 2022.
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing an organization. Originally, layoff referred exclusively to a temporary interruption in work, or employment but this has evolved to a permanent elimination of a position in both British and US English, requiring the addition of "temporary" to specify the original meaning of the word. A layoff is not to be confused with wrongful termination.
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in the relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions.
A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
A guest worker program allows foreign workers to temporarily reside and work in a host country until a next round of workers is readily available to switch. Guest workers typically perform low or semi-skilled agricultural, industrial, or domestic labor in countries with workforce shortages, and they return home once their contract has expired.
Worker centers are non-profit community-based mediating organizations in the United States that organize and provide support to communities of low-wage workers who are not already members of a collective bargaining organization, or have been legally excluded from coverage by U.S. labor laws. Many worker centers focus on immigrant and low-wage workers in sectors such as restaurant, construction, day labor and agriculture.
The degree of labour market flexibility is the speed with which labour markets adapt to fluctuations and changes in society, the economy or production. This entails enabling labour markets to reach a continuous equilibrium determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curves.
Labor relations or labor studies is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work in its broadest sense and how this connects to questions of social inequality. It explicitly encompasses unregulated, historical, and non-Western forms of labor. Here, labor relations define "for or with whom one works and under what rules. These rules determine the type of work, type and amount of remuneration, working hours, degrees of physical and psychological strain, as well as the degree of freedom and autonomy associated with the work." More specifically in a North American and strictly modern context, labor relations is the study and practice of managing unionized employment situations. In academia, labor relations is frequently a sub-area within industrial relations, though scholars from many disciplines including economics, sociology, history, law, and political science also study labor unions and labor movements. In practice, labor relations is frequently a subarea within human resource management. Courses in labor relations typically cover labor history, labor law, union organizing, bargaining, contract administration, and important contemporary topics.
In the United States, the minimum wage is set by U.S. labor law and a range of state and local laws. The first federal minimum wage was instituted in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but later found to be unconstitutional. In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act established it at 25¢ an hour. Its purchasing power peaked in 1968, at $1.60. In 2009, Congress increased it to $7.25 per hour with the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, and has not increased it since.
CASA is a Latino and immigration advocacy-and-assistance organization based in Maryland. It is active throughout the state, but has major foci in Prince George's County, Montgomery County and Baltimore. CASA influences Maryland politics on a wide range of policies, ranging from law-enforcement to education. It also has offices in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
In United States government contracting, a prevailing wage is defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime, paid to the majority of workers, laborers, and mechanics within a particular area. This is usually the union wage.
"Dirty, dangerous and demeaning", also known as the 3Ds, is an American neologism derived from the Asian concept, and refers to certain kinds of labor often performed by unionized blue-collar workers.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) is an American labor organization which aims at improving the lives of day laborers. It was founded in Northridge, California, in July 2001 and is based in Los Angeles, California. NDLON as a direct democracy where day laborers in member organizations vote directly for the policies at NDLON's biannual assemblies. NDLON started with 12 community-based organizations and has grown to 36 member organizations.
The economic impact of illegal immigration to the United States is challenging to measure and politically contentious. Research shows that illegal immigrants increase the size of the U.S. economy/contribute to economic growth, enhance the welfare of natives, contribute more in tax revenue than they collect, reduce American firms' incentives to offshore jobs and import foreign-produced goods, and benefit consumers by reducing the prices of goods and services.
In the United States, despite the efforts of equality proponents, income inequality persists among races and ethnicities. Asian Americans have the highest median income, followed by White Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. A variety of explanations for these differences have been proposed—such as differing access to education, two parent home family structure, high school dropout rates and experience of discrimination and deep-seated and systemic anti-Black racism—and the topic is highly controversial.
Job creation and unemployment are affected by factors such as aggregate demand, global competition, education, automation, and demographics. These factors can affect the number of workers, the duration of unemployment, and wage rates.
1–archaic: UMPIRE, ARBITER. 2–archaic: DAY LABORER.
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