Policy Areas
The NYU Wagner Labor Initiative has developed expertise in relation to certain employment policy issues that relate to enforcement, such as policies to strengthen enforcement; policies related to coercive contracts and other labor market inequities that inhibit workers from exercising their rights; and misclassification of workers, which presents a significant obstacle to government enforcement. In addition, the Labor Initiative also explores emerging developments in relation to workers’ rights enforcement, such as the resurgence of child labor and the need to ensure high road clean energy jobs.
Reports
- Quick Fixes to Lock in Wins for Workers: How States Can Preserve New Federal Protections (co-author Paul Sonn), National Employment Law Project, November 26, 2024.
- Power in partnership: How government agencies and community partners are joining forces to fight wage theft (co-author Rachel Deutsch), Economic Policy Institute and Harvard Center for Labor and a Just Economy, June 8, 2023.
- How district attorneys and state attorneys general are fighting workplace abuses, Economic Policy Institute and Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, May 17, 2021.
- Workers’ rights protection and enforcement by state attorneys general, Economic Policy Institute and Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, August 27, 2020.
- Protecting Workers Through Publicity: Promoting Workplace Law Compliance Through Strategic Communication, (co-author Tanya Goldman), Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, June 2020.
- How States and Localities Can Protect Workplace Safety and Health, (co-authors Jane Flanagan and Patricia Smith), Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and National Employment Law Project, May 15, 2020.
- State and local labor standards enforcement during COVID-19, (co-author Jane Flanagan), Economic Policy Institute and Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, April 28, 2020.
- Confronting Misclassification and Payroll Fraud: A Survey of State Labor Standards Enforcement Agencies (co-author Mark Erlich), Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, June 2019.
- State attorneys general can play key roles in protecting workers’ rights, (co-author Marni von Wilpert), Economic Policy Institute, May 7, 2018.
Articles
- Why workplace scholars and enforcers should be in conversation, Labor and Employment Relations Association Perspectives on Work magazine, Volume 26, 2022.
- The Growing Role of Localities in the United States in Enacting and Enforcing Protections for Gig Economy Workers, (co-author LiJia Gong), Competition Policy International, TechREG Chronicle, July 20, 2022.
- State and Local Workers’ Rights Innovations: New Players, New Laws, New Methods of Enforcement, originally published in Saint Louis University Law Journal, 65 St. Louis U. L.J. 45 (2021).
- Re-Envisioning the Roles of Prosecutors and Attorneys General to Make the Justice System Work for Everyone, (co-author Arisha Hatch), Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2020.
Webinars and Panels
- Protecting Workers: Wage Theft Enforcement for Prosecutors, Institute for Innovation for Prosecutors at John Jay College, January 31, 2024.
- How government agencies and community partners are joining forces to fight wage theft, March 27, 2024.
- How prosecutors help fight workplace crimes and injustice, Prosecutors Center for Excellence, March 3, 2023.
- Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Violations 3: Workplace Safety Prosecutions, hosted by NYU State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, September 12, 2022.
- Economic Justice panel webinar, Travis County (TX) District Attorney’s office, September 8, 2021.
- Using Consumer Laws to Protect Workers from Corporate Fraud and Misconduct: Recording: July 28, 2021: Hosted by the Economic Policy Institute, Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, National Consumer Law Center, and Towards Justice, this webinar provides a lively discussion among advocates, attorneys, academics, and current and former government officials about how consumer laws can be used to protect workers and address corporate abuse in the labor market. Featuring Veena Dubal, University of California Hastings College of Law; Seth Frotman, Student Borrower Protection Center; Terri Gerstein, Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and Economic Policy Institute; Patricio Marquez, Washington State Attorney General’s Office; Lorelei Salas, Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government Fellow; Hillary Schwab, Fair Work, P.C.; David Seligman, Towards Justice.
- Prosecutions of wage theft and other employer crimes, Economic Policy Institute, May 18, 2021.
- State Attorneys General as Protectors of Workers’ Rights, hosted by the Economic Policy Institute and the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, featuring AG labor bureau chiefs from CA, IL, MA, NY, PA, December 3, 2020.
- State AGs Protecting Workers’ Rights Roundtable, October 26, 2020, featuring D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. (available on this page, go to the black video space in the middle of the page).
Testimony
- Testimony before the Maine Joint Standing Committee on Labor and Housing, February 6, 2024
- State and Local Workers’ Rights Enforcement, Alaska House Labor and Commerce Committee, May 14, 2021 (portion starting 31:30).
- Testimony to the Oregon House Civil Law Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee on HB 2205: The Just Enforcement Act February 24, 2021.
Select op-eds and commentary
- Trump 2.0 Will Rollback Worker Wins. States Can Take Action to Protect Them | Opinion, Newsweek, January 16, 2025 (co-author Paul Sonn).
- Pro-Labor Legislators Can Fight Back Against What's Coming. Here's How, More Perfect Union, January 8, 2025.
- Best Of BPR 12/16: Nick Collins On Defeating Wu's Tax Proposal & How To Protect Labor Rights Under Trump, WGBH, December 16, 2024.
- Democratic AGs Gear Up to Fight Trump on Workplace Law Issues, Bloomberg Law, December 3, 2024.
- Managers Everywhere but No Overtime to Spare, Slate, May 8, 2024.
- 90 years after 'Lunch Atop a Skyscraper," are workers any safer? , April 29, 2024.
- Prosecute Bad Bosses: More district attorneys are cracking down on abusive employers. It's about time. Slate, March 21, 2023.
- America's Workplace Safety Crisis, The American Prospect, April 28, 2023.
- New Process Gives Undocumented Workers Legal Status to Report Employer Abuse, The American Prospect, January 31, 2023.
- How Local Governments Are Advancing Workers' Rights, and Why Even More Should Get Involved, Route Fifty, June 28, 2022 (co-author LiJia Gong).
- State Attorneys General Are Helping Workers in Hard Times, The American Prospect, September 7, 2020.
- Protect the Whistleblowers—and All Workers Who Speak Out, The American Prospect, October 8, 2019.
- More states should follow new Colorado policy on wage theft, The Hill, May 30, 2019.
- How States Can Enforce Workers’ Rights When Trump and His Supremes Don’t Want To, (co-author David Seligman), The American Prospect, November 14, 2018.
- Stealing From Workers is a Crime. Why Don't More Prosecutors See It That Way?, The Nation, May 24, 2018.
- Trump’s Attacks on Immigrants Are a Gift for Bad Bosses, The Nation, April 24, 2017.
Reports and Articles
- Forced Arbitration: A Losing Proposition for Workers, Chapter 11 in Inequality and the Labor Market, Sharon Block and Benjamin H. Harris, eds., Brookings Institution Press, April 6, 2021.
- “Sign on the Dotted Line”: How Coercive Employment Contracts Are Bringing Back the Lochner Era and What We Can Do About It, (co-author Jane Flanagan), originally published in University of San Francisco Law Review, 54 U.S.F. L. Rev. 441 (2020).
Webinars and Panels
- Building Worker Power as Anti-Monopoly: The Next Phase of the Modern Antitrust Agenda, May 10, 2024: recording part 1, recording part 2.
- Noncompete clauses cut worker power off at the knees, Economic Policy Institute, March 1, 2023.
Select op-eds and commentary
- Power to the people: It's time to take on the modern monopoly, The Hill, June 8, 2024 (co-author Pat Garofalo)
- How we all benefit from this new FTC rule, CNN, April 26, 2024.
- Business Groups' Reflexive Anti-Worker Demagogy, The American Prospect, Nov. 13, 2023.
- Connecticut should curb noncompetes, no matter what happens in D.C., Connecticut Insider, February 9, 2023
- Noncompete clauses: What Are They, and Why Is the FTC Trying to Ban Them? Teen Vogue, January 18, 2023.
- How Corporations Keep Their Own Workers in Debt, Politico, Oct. 21, 2021.
- Noncompete agreements allow bosses to chain workers to their jobs. We need to free them, NBC News THINK, January 11, 2020.
- Are Employment Contracts With Unenforceable Terms Unethical? The National Law Journal, June 7, 2019. (co-author Brian Shearer).
- The Chamber Speaks: Forced Arbitration Is Actually Good for Workers!, The American Prospect, June 5, 2019 (co-author Heidi Shierholz).
- Forced Arbitration Is Unjust and Deeply Unpopular. Can Congress End It?, Slate, March 1, 2019
- Google Is Ending Forced Arbitration in a Monumental Win for Its Workers, Slate, February 22, 2019.
- Workers Deserve Better Than Marco Rubio’s Woeful Noncompete Clause Bill, Slate, February 14, 2019 (co-author Jane Flanagan).
- End Forced Arbitration for Sexual Harassment. Then Do More, The New York Times, November 14, 2018.
Reports
- Confronting Misclassification and Payroll Fraud: A Survey of State Labor Standards Enforcement Agencies (co-author Mark Erlich), Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, June 2019.
Webinars and panels
- Gig Worker Protections in NYC and Brazil: Examples of Government Action on Platform Workers’ Rights, March 18, 2024.
- Albany Law School, Warren M. Anderson Series, The Gig Economy, May 28, 2020.
Select op-eds and commentary
- How Uber and Lyft Avoid Millions in Business Taxes, Slate, May 20, 2024.
- Uber and Lyft are the corporations that cry wolf, Minnesota Reformer, April 8, 2024 (co-author Laura Padin).
- More People Are Being Classified as Gig Workers. That's Bad for Everyone, New York Times, Jan. 28, 2024.
- There's Only One Kind of Extra Fee That DoorDash and Instacart Don't Like, Slate, November 15, 2023.
- Uber, DoorDash & Grubhub deliver poverty wages: app giants are trying to block NYC rules on minimum pay, NY Daily News, July 26, 2023.
- Gig Companies Like Uber Always Say They Can't Pay Workers More. Here's the Truth. Slate, June 22, 2023.
- In Massachusetts, a Limit on Gig Companies' Deceptions, The American Prospect, June 17, 2022.
- Opinion: Why Coloradans should be skeptical about gig companies’ promises, Colorado Sun, January 21, 2021.
- What Happened in California Is a Cautionary Tale for Us All, New York Times, November 13, 2020.
- Gig companies want to change the rules about who qualifies as an employee. Here's why they're wrong, CNN Business, Oct. 14, 2020.
Reports
- Policies for states and localities to fight oppressive child labor, Economic Policy Institute and NYU Wagner Labor Initiative, February 27, 2024.
Webinars and Panels
- State policies to fight child labor, March 4, 2024.
- The Rise of Child Labor and How We Can Fight Back, Economic Policy Institute, December 5, 2023.
- The Resurgence of Child Labor and the Rights of the Child in the United States, Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, October 17, 2023.
- Arkansas Law Review Symposium, Children at Work, October 13, 2023 (Beginning 12:10).
Testimony
- Ensuring the Safety and Well‐Being of Unaccompanied Children, Written testimony submitted to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in conjunction with hearing, June 14, 2023.
- Testimony, Public Hearing on Child Labor, Pennsylvania House Committee on Labor and Industry, November 14, 2023.
- Powerpoint accompanying testimony for Oklahoma Legislature Interim Study 23-065 regarding Child Labor Laws, October 25, 2023.
Op-eds and Commentary
- Child Labor Has Made a Comeback, Slate, November 16, 2022.
- Are We Actually Arguing About Whether 14-Year-Olds Should Work in Meatpacking Plants?, New York Times, March 27, 2023.
- How Did Children End Up as Factory Workers in America Again? Slate, March 1, 2023 (co-author Bob Carey)
- How states can fight child labor, Route Fifty, March 8, 2024.
- Work permits: A readily-implemented lever for reducing illegal child labor, Route Fifty, June 11, 2024.
Media Appearances
- Hyundai lawsuit tip of U.S. child labor iceberg, Danielle Myles, FDI Intelligence, June 20, 2024.
- State Child Labor Penalties Expand in Pushback on Relaxed Limits, Chris Marr, Bloomberg Daily Labor Reports, May 14, 2024.
- Mercedes Workers File For Union Election; The State Of Child Labor, The Majority Report with Sam Seder, April 10, 2024.
- America is divided over major efforts to rewrite child labor laws, Lauren Kaori Gurley, Washington Post, March 31, 2024.
- NYU Labor Expert On How to Fight Child Labor Violations, Daniela Porat, Law 360, March 6, 2024.
- What's Driving the Changes to Child Labor Laws, Zina Hutton, Governing, March 1, 2024.
- Report urges states to step into the gap, step up enforcement of child labor laws, Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner, Feb. 28, 2024.
- Despite hazardous working conditions, many states are rolling back child labor laws, Laura Romero, ABC News, Feb. 21, 2024.
- Immigrant child laborers are being killed in US factories. Companies are walking away with fines, Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian, Feb. 12, 2024.
- Florida lawmakers to consider weakening century-old child labor laws, Steven Lemongello, Orlando Sentinel, October 6, 2023.
- Child Labor is a Growing Problem, Theresa Agovino, Society for Human Resource Management, September 23, 2023.
- California's Alex Padilla Calls for Corporate Accountability to End Migrant Child Labor Exploitation, Sierra Sun Times, June 15, 2023.
- Democratic senators push for Labor budget increase to prevent abuse of migrant children, Caleigh Kelly, The Hill, June 14, 2023.
- States Are Loosening Child Labor Laws. Should They?, Melissa Angell, Inc. June 6, 2023.
- Special Report: How a fake ID let Hyundai suppliers use child labor in Alabama, Mica Rosenberg, Joshua Schneyer, and Kristina Cooke, Reuters, April 27, 2023.
- New state laws are rolling back regulations on child labor, Lauren Hamilton, 1A, WAMU, National Public Radio, April 26, 2023.
- Why Child Labor is on the Rise in the U.S., The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, April 7, 2023.
- Stronger protections needed to stop 'upsurge' in US child labor violations, expert says, Hannah Loss, GBH News, April 3, 2023.
- Child labor violations have quadrupled since 2015. How did we get here?, Arfie Ghedi, 1A, WAMU, National Public Radio, March 6, 2023.
- Child workers found throughout Hyundai-Kia supply chain in Alabama, Mica Rosenberg, Kristina Cooke, and Joshua Schneyer, Reuters, Dec. 16, 2022.
Reports and Articles
- Examining the Role of AGs in a Just Transition (co-author Bethany Davis Noll), 40 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 198 (2023).
- A Role for State Attorneys General in a Just Transition, (co-authors Bethany Davis Noll and Tiernaur Anderson), Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, NYU School of Law, December, 2022.
Webinars and Panels
- Report Discussion: A Role for State Attorneys General in a Just Transition: December 15, 2022, featuring Dana Johnson, Director, Federal Policy Office, WE ACT for Environmental Justice; Lara Skinner, Director, Labor Leading on Climate Initiative, Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Bethany David Noll, Executive Director, State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, NYU School of Law; Terri Gerstein, Director, State and Local Enforcement Project, Harvard Labor and Worklife Program, moderated by Tiernaur Anderson, Senior Digital and Communications Specialist, State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, NYU School of Law. Recording.