Nik Theodore Quotations

This really is a nationwide phenomenon. We found the presence of day labor in every region of the United States.

The dangers and injuries in the Midwest may have to do with the fact that roofing jobs are undertaken at significantly higher rates than in the other regions.

We were disturbed by the incredibly high incidence of wage violations. We also found a very high level of injuries.

We found very, very low levels of usage of public assistance and other public benefits.

We found that the spending of undocumented immigrants in the Chicago metro area accounted for about 31,000 jobs every year.

Coming into the study, we knew that the low-wage market is rife with violations of basic labor standards, but we still found the statistics shocking and disturbing.

Employers are often able to deter workers from contesting labor violations by threatening to turn them over to federal immigration authorities. Even when employers do not make these threats overtly, day laborers, mindful of their undocumented status, are reluctant to seek recourse through government channels. We want to change that.

The spending of undocumented immigrants, as it ripples through the economy, accounts for a $5.4 billion dollars in the Chicago metro area annually.

The goal was to document a population that, though quite visible on the corners of U.S. cities, is poorly understood by the public and by policy makers. We hope to inform policy debates so that decision-makers can devise thoughtful and effective strategies for resolving many of the problems that day laborers face.

The day labor corner is not as disconnected from society as people think. It's seen as a shadow economy, but that's really not the case.