Workers have a right to be paid in our economy as they are putting a value for their services and skills. Usually, workers within the United States are paid a wage agreed upon by them and the employer. Realistically though, the employer has a lot more power over that agreement than the employee. Over US history, protections on wages were introduced as alarmingly corrupt practices by employers were shed some light. As an example, during the 20th century a minimum wage was protected as employer's would exploit their workers by dropping wages as low as they could without losing labor due to outside pressures to take the lower pay. Unfortunately, some employers fail to comply with these legal protections on a day to day basis.
The common violations of the law related to employment wages include:
Not paying the correct minimum wage.
Paying the lower "training wage" or "youth minimum wage" to workers who should be paid more.
Not paying overtime or improperly classified exempt employees.
Making employees work "off-the-clock," and not paying them for it.
Deducting too much for tips.
Deducting for wages paid in goods, such as meals or food.
Being paid lower wages set by the legal requirement is an outward breach on worker's rights. Their value on their services is now being dictated solely by the employer.
Even though we have these legal protections set in place to protect worker's rights, violations still occur so we need new policies to be pushed. Labor unions have historically been helpful in combating these violations however many worker's are unable to afford all the financial requirements, membership fees, unemployment disabilities, etc. to join those unions. In order to make Labor Unions a more viable way of protecting worker's rights the nation needs to enact a universal basic income. The extra income can be used to join these labor organizations, as worker's who are unable to file for unemployment will have more incentive to join. This in turn might make it so unemployed and employed people would have a larger incentive to join the unions as they have a little more cushion to fight against the employer's violations.
Corporations and businessmen will continue to voice their opinion that labor unions are a threat to our economy. Lobbying is used in our government to sway towards the opinions and interest of these corporations and unfortunately it is crippling the power of unions in the economy. However, continuing to protect workers rights and unions in congress can be used to prevent this corruption and therefor could help protect against these violations more effectively.