The report finds that many of Florida’s workforce fall outside of federal labor laws; thus, other enforcement mechanisms such as Miami Dade’s Wage Theft Ordinance are needed to ensure that employees, communities, and local governments will not miss out on millions of stolen wages that are owed to them, and that [...]
This report focuses on how workers are faring in Florida’s economy, and the overriding theme in 2011 is the stark contrasts in the impact of the recession on different groups of workers. While higher educated workers in higher paying jobs appear to be doing fairly well and even gaining ground in wages, lower educated workers, [...]
RISEP publishes research and data on issues of concern to low and middle income workers and their families in Florida. Our work focuses on working conditions, low wage workers, working poverty, living wage law and minimum wage laws, and high road development.
RISEP also publishes data on Florida’s work force, labor market statistics, wage levels, poverty, employment, shifts in jobs, quality of employment, immigration, race and gender statistics.
RISEP is part of the Center for Labor Research and Studies of the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University.
RISEP Director Alex Stepick discussed patterns of social and economic inequality in Florida at the FIU Metropolitan Center breakfast forum on 2010 U.S. Census Key Economic and Social Trends. RISEP research on income inequality, labor market conditions for minority and immigrant workers, and the impact of the current recession indicates suggests that policy makers and community leaders [...]
RISEP’s new analysis of Florida’s unemployment compensation system, co-released by Florida New Majority and the National Employment Law Project, shows that unemployment benefits are a key stimulus to Florida’s economy, putting over $9 billion into the state’s economy since the start of the recession. But Florida ranks low among states on key measures of how well benefits reach [...]
RISEP’s new analysis of Florida’s unemployment compensation system, co-released by Florida New Majority and the National Employment Law Project, shows that unemployment benefits are a key stimulus to Florida’s economy, putting over $9 billion into the state’s economy since the start of the recession. But Florida ranks low among states on key measures of how well benefits reach [...]
At the end of 2010 Florida’s economic outlook is still uncertain. The number of jobs increased just slightly in 2010, growing by 0.6% for an addition of 43,500 jobs. However there are still over 1.1 million people unemployed in the state. This means that for every job that was added, there are still 25 people [...]
On February 28, 2011, Miami-Dade will celebrate one year since the passage of the Wage Theft Ordinance. On this day, RISEP will be releasing its second wage theft report on the sheer amount of wage theft cases that have been documented by the Florida Wage Theft Task Force.
Read below to see how the Wage Theft [...]
Miami Herald
By Nirvi Shah
November 16, 2010
A new report shows that wage theft in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties occurs not only in low-wage industries but also in professional and higher salary jobs, including those in the legal profession, at architecture and accounting firms, public and private schools and in medical fields.
The report entitled Wage Theft [...]
This report is the first in a series describing and exposing the extent of wage violations in the state of Florida. This project is an initiative of the Florida Wage Theft Task Force (WTTF) whose mission is to find solutions to and increase public awareness about wage violations experienced by Florida’s working men and women. [...]
On November 16 the Economic Policy Institute released a new briefing paper showing that the percent of the population that has health insurance through an employer, either their own or a relative’s, has declined every year since 2000. Florida has some of the lowest rates of employer sponsored health care coverage, coming in 44th in [...]
The report Wage Theft in Florida: A Real Problem with Real Solutions outlines five concrete solutions critical to reducing and eliminating wage and hour violations in the state of Florida. Some recommendations focus on existing laws and regulations while others propose to reform current legislation. Florida’s state and local governments, have a fundamental responsibility [...]
Each September the Census Bureau releases new statistics on poverty in the U.S. Since the recession began Florida has had the largest increase in the poverty rate in the nation. The poverty rate rose to 14.9% in 2009, while the child poverty rate rose to 21%. 2.7 million Floridians, roughly 1 in 7 people, were living [...]