LAWCN Concept Paper: Labor Standards Enforcement Paves the Way for a New LA

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The dual crisis of homelessness and wage theft is particularly acute in Los Angeles. Numerous studies attribute skyrocketing rates of homelessness to increasing costs of living, stagnant wages, a failure of the social safety net, and, above all, a loss of income. Wage theft dramatically compounds this risk for Angelenos, and particularly those of color, women, and immigrants.

The Los Angeles Worker Center Network (LAWCN) is composed of non-profit worker centers, academic and legal institutions who work together to alleviate everyday harm to frontline, low-wage Angelenos. In our newest concept paper, Labor Standards Enforcement Paves the Way for a New LA, we propose changes to lead the way toward a “New LA,” where residents can afford dignified housing, high-road employers play a valued role in the local economy while violators face strict penalties, and government agencies cut red tape facing victims of labor violations.