"New Study Finds “More Sweatshops than Starbucks” in Chicago", 19 May

Illegal abuses in low-wage workplaces are largely going unreported by workers because of a realistic expectation their bosses will retaliate against them for speaking up, according to a new study…Challenging the Business of Fear, prepared by Raise the Floor Alliance…The study finds that among employees who dared to speak up about workplace injustices…58 percent experienced retaliation… According to a recent investigation by the Chicago Reporter, only one in four minimum wage complaints in the city are investigated…The study found that when workers who had been retaliated against sought legal remedies, 55 percent said their complaints were not taken seriously and 66 percent said they did not receive adequate relief…Under current laws…the burden of proof is on workers to demonstrate that their employer fired them out of retaliation…Furthermore, the report notes that often the only available legal remedy…does not cover instances where reprisals took forms other than termination, or where victims cannot or do not wish to return to a particular job they were fired from…A bill recently introduced…could address some of the problems around reprisals…[by forcing] employers to provide fired workers with a clear and legitimate reason for the discharge, essentially proving that it was not done in retaliation…