FOR RELEASE: March 10, 2025
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Steve Flamisch at 848-252-9011 or steve.flamisch@smlr.rutgers.edu
Stephanie Kulke at 847-491-4819 or stephanie.kulke@northwestern.edu
Tens of thousands of Nevada workers illegally paid below the minimum wage
Women of color, including many domestic workers, lose the most. Vigorous enforcement is needed to catch violations and recover back wages.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Some of Nevada’s lowest-paid workers are losing thousands of dollars per year to wage theft, making it even harder to care for themselves and their families.
A report (English / Español) by researchers at Rutgers University and Northwestern University finds that nearly 40,000 Nevadans are illegally paid below the minimum wage. Women of color, including a large number of domestic workers, are disproportionately affected. The average victim loses nearly 20% of their earnings, totaling more than $120 million statewide every year.
“Many Nevadans rely on housekeepers, childcare workers and personal care attendants to provide loving attention to family members,” said Janice Fine, director of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and one of the report’s co-authors. “They are already grossly undercompensated for the essential work that they do. Our study shows that too many of them are also having their wages stolen.”
The Workplace Justice Lab, a multi-institutional partnership focused on strengthening labor standards enforcement in the U.S., analyzed federal survey data to estimate the scope of wage theft in Nevada. The researchers discovered that violations increased as the state’s minimum wage climbed from $5.15 in 2005 to the current $12. According to the report:
- Nearly 40,000 Nevada workers are illegally paid below the minimum wage each year.
- The average victim loses 19% of their earnings, approximately $3,000, per year.
- Workers lose a combined $122 million annually, totaling $2.4 billion in the last 20 years.
- Women, people of color, and noncitizens are more likely to experience wage theft.
- Young people (18-24) and workers with less education are also more likely to be victims.
Nevada’s domestic workers face the highest risk by a wide margin. The report estimates that minimum wage theft affects 18% of housecleaners, childcare workers and personal care attendants employed directly by private households. They are five times more likely than the average worker to be illegally underpaid. Next on the list is personal/laundry services, including hairstylists and nail salon workers, at 10.5%.
“The sectors with the highest violation rates tend to employ more women of color, more workers without U.S. citizenship, and more young people without a high school diploma,” said Jake Barnes, research program manager of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and the report’s lead author. “This is no coincidence. We consistently find that these populations are particularly vulnerable to minimum wage theft.”
“When low-wage workers are underpaid by even a small percentage of their income, they face major hardships such as being unable to pay rent or childcare or put food on the table,” said Daniel J. Galvin, director of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Northwestern University and one of the report’s co-authors. “Minimum wage violations also distort the market, giving a competitive advantage to employers who do not play by the rules. This creates a race to the bottom in high-violation industries as employers compete to save on labor costs.”
The workers who are most vulnerable to wage theft are typically the least likely to speak up. The Workplace Justice Lab recommends that state and local enforcement agencies:
- Launch proactive investigations in high-violation industries, rather than waiting for complaints; and
- Create partnerships with community-based organizations that workers know and trust in order to encourage violation reporting.
“Unfortunately, the concerning patterns and trends in wage theft in Nevada are likely to persist without active intervention and vigorous enforcement,” the report states.
The findings hit close to home for members of the Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center, a grassroots organization that helps day laborers, domestic workers, and other low-wage and migrant workers in the region. Arriba and the National Domestic Workers Alliance co-hosted an event on Monday to share and discuss the report.
“The harm we experience is not only the wage theft, but psychological manipulation when an employer purposely underpays you, and then tells you that you need to be grateful for getting paid at all,” said Arriba Las Vegas board member Elizeth Peláez, who experienced minimum wage violations and even complete nonpayment when cleaning homes and working for temporary staffing agencies. “We want a living wage, and that starts by ensuring we will be paid minimum wage.”
Karín Martinez, campaign coordinator with Arriba Las Vegas, added, “Too many times, we have ended up without pay when businesses shut down without paying our wages, only to reopen with the same owner, doing the same work, at the same places with the same materials, but we are left without pay or ways to file a claim. Until we close this loophole, some of these temporary staffing agencies and cleaning companies will keep doing this to more and more workers.”
Samantha Cuellar, an Arriba Las Vegas member who experienced minimum wage theft and abuse at work, said, “We work in places with the highest rates of underpayment in Nevada including private homes, personal and laundry services, agriculture, and bars and restaurants.”
About the Researchers
Jake Barnes is a researcher in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, and a third-year Ph.D. student focused on the enactment and enforcement of labor standards.
Daniel J. Galvin is a professor of political science and a faculty fellow and chair of the program on policy discourse and decision making at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern.
Jenn Round is the director of the labor standards enforcement program in the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and former director of the Seattle Office of Labor Standards.
Janice Fine is the director of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and a professor of labor studies and employment relations in the School of Management and Labor Relations.
About Us
The Workplace Justice Lab is a multi-institutional partnership that conducts research on workers’ rights and economic inequality and collaborates with state and local government agencies as well as worker centers, unions and legal nonprofits. It is anchored by the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and includes the Workplace Justice Lab @ Northwestern University and the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California.
