Recommended Actions

Identify the office(s) in charge of labor law enforcement in your service area. This may be a state, county or city government agency or a combination thereof. Learn about their mandate, their priorities, which ordinances they enforce and their bandwidth and capabilities. Any new or expanded policies or incentive programs to advance job quality and provide worker protections should incorporate monitoring and enforcement.

Workforce and economic development agencies can be important partners for enforcement agencies. Areas of collaboration include:

• Posting information and conducting “know your rights” workshops at American Job Centers

• Providing safe channels for workers and job seekers in public employment programs to report alleged labor violations

• Sharing investigation and enforcement data on companies that have violated local ordinances, informing partner, procurement and subsidized wage funding decisions

• Monitoring and enforcing living wage ordinances and other job quality requirements and standards for contractors, service providers and recipients of wage subsidies

• Sharing planning and policymaking

If your agency is leading or supporting discussions about new worker protections, labor standards or job quality incentive programs, identify how these policies or practices will be monitored and enforced. Key considerations include:

• Which office or department will lead monitoring and enforcement?

• What is the scope of its mandate?

• What resources are needed to do the job well?

• How will the agency's role and process be communicated to workers and employers?

• How will alleged violations be surfaced?

The Harvard Law School’s Labor and Work Life Program has a library of tools to delve deeper into these questions.