Labor
What Work Is Like in the U.S.
OSHA Investigates Small Dairy Farms So Rarely That Many Worker Advocates Don’t Bother to Report Deaths and Injuries
Worker advocates say the federal agency’s patchwork of enforcement across the country is fundamentally unfair. Many don’t contact OSHA over safety incidents because they’ve heard so frequently that small farms can’t be investigated.
127,000 New York Workers Have Been Victims of Wage Theft
An analysis of federal and state databases sheds new light on the prevalence and scale of wage theft in New York restaurants and other industries, placing the total wages stolen in one five-year period at more than $203 million.
Local Reporting Network
New York Workers Are Waiting on $79 Million in Back Wages
The New York State Department of Labor still needs to recover 63% of stolen wages during a five-year period analyzed by ProPublica and Documented. The problem? An understaffed agency with poor tools for recovering wages and enforcing judgments.
Local Reporting Network
Why Some Wisconsin Lawmakers and Local Officials Have Changed Their Minds About Letting Undocumented Immigrants Drive
“If we suddenly kicked out all of the people here, the undocumented, our dairy farms would collapse,” one lawmaker said. “We have to come up with a solution.”
Featured Reporters
Impact of Our Reporting
Aprueban $8 Millones Para Viviendas Para Obreros de Granjas. La Policía Intentará Cerrar las Brechas Lingüísticas.
Funcionarios electos del Condado Dane en Wisconsin dijeron que las reformas responden a la investigación de ProPublica sobre la muerte de un niño nicaragüense en una granja lechera en 2019.
Officials Approve $8 Million for Housing for Immigrant Dairy Workers in Wisconsin
Dane County lawmakers cited ProPublica reporting for the moves to improve the lives of dairy workers in southern Wisconsin.
Officials Move to Address Problems Facing Immigrant Workers on Wisconsin Dairy Farms
A ProPublica investigation showed how language barriers contributed to authorities wrongly blaming a dairy farm worker for his son’s death. Lawmakers have responded.
Series
Series: Peligro en las granjas : Los obreros en la sombra de la industria lechera
Series: America’s Dairyland : Risking Workers’ Lives for the Milk We Drink
Series: The New Sweatshop : The Secretive World of Work-At-Home Customer Service
Series: On the Line : How the Meatpacking Industry Became a Hotbed of COVID-19
Series: Trashed : Inside New York’s Deadly Private Garbage Industry
Series: Half-life : Nuke Lab Workers Getting Sick
Series: Temp Land : Lost Wages, High Injury Rates, Few Benefits
