Isabel M. Estrada Portales
06/24/2005

A study confirms what anecdotical evidence had been showing: day laborers in the Washington Metropolitan area are regularly cheated out of their wages, sometimes regardless of migratory status.

“The majority of day laborers are drawn to the region by the promise of economic opportunity,” the study says. “They come to the region primarily from Central America (67%), with the majority (68%) having lived in the United States for less than 6 years and 19% having lived in the United States for 11 years or more.”

In July of 2004, a research team led by the University of California at Los Angeles interviewed 476 day laborers at 16 hiring sites in the greater Washington D.C. region, including Baltimore. Each survey was conducted face-to-face in English, Spanish, or French.

"Employers exploit workers regardless of if they are undocumented or not. Many of the contractors believe that if a person can't speak English, she or he won't fight for their rights," says Tim Freilich, Managing Attorney for the Virginia Justice Center, an organization for the defense of workers.

Day laborers are family oriented and a source of financial support for their immediate and extended families. In contrast to other metropolitan areas in which day laborers are primarily employed by individuals, day laborers in the greater Washington D.C. region primarily work for construction contractors, subcontractors, or private companies (67%).

They are also a source of labor for community residents, with almost 70% of day labor employed by residents of the communities in which day laborer sites are located in the last three months.

These workers are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. “More than half (58%) of all day laborers in the Washington D.C. region have experienced at least one instance of non-payment or a bad check from an employer, 33% have been abandoned at worksites, and 23% have experienced violence at the hands of employers,” the study found.