From 2008 to 2011, only 17% of court-ordered claims for back pay and labor law penalties were collected, according to the report by the National Employment Law Project and the UCLA Labor Center titled "Hollow Victories: The Crisis in Collecting Unpaid Wages for California's Workers." Just 42%—$165 million out of $390 million—was recovered after being verified by government regulators, even after judges signed orders and employers signed settlement agreements. Meanwhile, companies representing three-fifths of unpaid-wage judgments legally vanished, the report said.

It's breathtaking how systematically the most vulnerable workers in the country are being screwed. In California, workers who get judgments against employers who deny them the breaks they're legally entitled to take, don't pay overtime, or otherwise steal the wages they've earned aren't all that likely to get their money A business "closes" and reopens under another name, and poof, there goes the worker's chance of getting paid.

And then there's the ever-growing temp industry, which has raised the practice of screwing workers to an art form:



The temp system insulates the host companies from workers’ compensation claims, unemployment taxes, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants. In turn, the temps suffer high injury rates, according to federal officials and academic studies, and many of them endure hours of unpaid waiting and face fees that depress their pay below minimum wage. The rise of the blue-collar permatemp helps explain one of the most troubling aspects of the phlegmatic recovery. Despite a soaring stock market and steady economic growth, many workers are returning to temporary or part-time jobs. This trend is intensifying America’s decades-long rise in income inequality, in which low- and middle-income workers have seen their real wages stagnate or decline. On average, temps earn 25 percent less than permanent workers.

As you can see from that, the temp industry is undermining employment standards for everyone else. Which is to say, unless you're in the top two to three percent, they're coming for you.

Keep reading below the fold for more of the week's labor and education news.