Minimum wage violations are rising sharply at fast food restaurants in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, according to a report by researchers at Northwestern University and Rutgers University. At least one in every four workers was illegally paid below the minimum wage in 2024, costing the average victim nearly $3,500 and totaling $44 million in lost wages annually across the region.
"When low-wage workers are underpaid by even a small percentage of their income, they face major hardships such as being unable to pay for rent, afford childcare or put food on the table," said Daniel J. Galvin, director of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Northwestern University and the report's lead author. "It's more important than ever that fast food workers know their rights and how to exercise them."
The Workplace Justice Lab, a multi-institutional partnership focused on strengthening labor standards enforcement in the U.S., studied the problem in depth. Researchers analyzed federal data for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the city and surrounding municipalities, to estimate minimum wage violations over a 15-year period.
The researchers found that violations steadily increased in all service-sector industries as the minimum wage climbed from $10 in 2016 to the current $16.50 statewide and $17.28 in Los Angeles. But violations increased more dramatically for fast food workers, whose minimum wage is now $20 statewide. The report finds:
- Last year, 25% of fast food workers in Greater Los Angeles were illegally paid below the minimum wage. That's more than 8 times higher than the violation rate of 3% in 2009.
- An estimated 12,660 fast food workers in Greater Los Angeles experience wage theft annually, though most never come forward to complain.
- Each affected worker loses an average of $3,479 per year, or 16% of their income.
- Collectively, fast food workers in Greater Los Angeles lose $44 million
- These figures are underestimates due to data collection limitations, so the actual number of affected workers and lost income is likely much higher.
The report finds that the fast food industry has had a higher violation rate than every comparable industry for more than a decade. This could be due to the predominance of the franchise model, a low unionization rate, and a high-turnover workforce with many immigrants and younger workers who may not know their rights or may fear retaliation for speaking up, Galvin said.
Prior research has shown that most low-wage workers do not complain when they're underpaid, or not paid at all, in part because they do not know their rights. In California's fast food industry alone, 88% of workers do not have a full understanding of their basic rights on the job.
The Los Angeles City Council is considering a measure, the Fast Food Fair Work Ordinance, that would mandate "know your rights" trainings to help correct this problem. The Council's Economic Development Committee will vote on the proposal in the near future.
"The City of Los Angeles and the State of California have enacted a number of key protections for workers in recent years, but these laws hold far less weight if workers do not understand how they are impacted by them, let alone that they exist," said Jake Barnes, research program manager of the Workplace Justice Lab @ Rutgers University and the report's co-author. "Know your rights trainings for fast food workers would play an important role in ensuring that Angelenos are both aware of their rights at work and how to exercise them."
The report's findings hit close to home for many fast food workers.
"I've worked at Subway for 11 and a half years, and I've been the victim of all kinds of labor abuse," said Eva Rodriguez, an employee at a Los Angeles Subway. She charges in a lawsuit that her employer required her to work many hours completely unpaid, altered records to deny her pay she had earned and threatened to report her to immigration authorities in retaliation for exercising her rights. "Not knowing my rights and how to uphold them has cost me … many tens of thousands of dollars," she said.
Julieta Garcia, a cook at a Los Angeles Pizza Hut, has similar complaints.
"I have been subjected to many different forms of wage theft," Garcia said, including "having hours skimmed from my paycheck, not being paid my sick time, not receiving split shift premiums, not being able to take my rest breaks or receive the rest break premium," she said in a complaint to the California State Labor Commissioner. "I am not able to pay my bills on time and sometimes struggle to pay for food."
About the researchers
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.
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.
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.
