Objectives. We measured key features of local and state wage theft laws in the 40 largest US cities to assess the added value of local legislation and to create scientific legal data for use in evaluating the health impact of wage theft laws. Methods. We adapted standard policy surveillance methods to collect and code local and state minimum wage and nonpayment of wages theft laws from January 1, 2010, to April 15, 2023. Results. Compared with state laws, local wage theft legislation was proportionally more likely to contain features that facilitated worker complaints and to provide flexible enforcement tools. Only 4 of the 40 largest cities were totally preempted from enacting local wage theft legislation. Conclusions. Local wage theft laws provide an opportunity for innovative mechanisms to support complaint filing and enforcement. More cities could enact wage theft laws without preemption concerns. Public Health Implications. Ensuring that low-wage workers are fairly paid is important to health and health equity. Our research provides scientific legal data for use in evaluating the health effects of these widely applied protections. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):492-501. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308351).

Sustainability and green policies are generally presented as solutions for environmental protection and long-term human welfare. However, this research explores a rarely discussed and uncomfortable reality: whether sustainability initiatives unintentionally increase the daily cost of living for the urban poor. The study focuses on the conflict between environmental responsibility and economic affordability, especially for low-income families living in urban areas. Instead of relying on official data or secondary sources, this paper is built on student-led field observations, informal conversations, and lived experiences of economically weaker sections in the city. As a student researcher, the students conducted informal surveys and discussions with urban poor households such as street vendors, domestic workers, daily wage labourers, auto drivers, sanitation workers, and small shop owners living in rented rooms or informal settlements. The discussions were not structured interviews but everyday conversations about expenses changes in prices, and difficulties in adapting to new “green” rules. This approach allowed genuine responses, free from technical language or policy influence. One major observation was that many urban poor individuals were not against sustainability itself. However, they felt that green policies were designed for people who could afford choices. For example, bans or restrictions on older vehicles were seen as environmentally necessary, but for poor auto drivers or delivery workers, replacing vehicles was financially impossible. Electric vehicles were viewed as “rich people’s sustainability,” not a realistic option. Charging infrastructure, battery replacement costs, and lack of resale value created fear rather than hope. The study also found that energy-saving policies sometimes increased expenses instead of reducing them. Poor households were encouraged to use energy-efficient appliances, LED lights, or cleaner cooking fuels. However, the upfront cost of such products was a major barrier. Many families continued using older appliances or unsafe alternatives because they could not afford the “initial investment” required for sustainability. In some cases, prepaid smart meters created anxiety, as families feared sudden disconnection if balance ran out, leading to more cautious but stressful energy use. The analysis suggests that sustainability without affordability can deepen urban inequality. When green choices are expensive, they become privileges rather than rights. The research does not argue against sustainability but emphasizes the need for inclusive design. Policies must be grounded in real-life economic conditions, especially of the urban poor, who are often the least contributors to environmental degradation but the most affected by policy changes. In conclusion, this study highlights that true sustainability must balance environmental goals with social justice. If green policies increase the cost of survival for the poor, they risk losing public trust and long-term effectiveness. Sustainability should reduce hardship, not redistribute it downward. The findings call for a people-centered sustainability model, where affordability, dignity, and participation of the urban poor are central to environmental action.

The large numbers of low-waged migrant workers in Singapore leads to the concentration of employment opportunities in high-risk, low-protection jobs and ties up most workers to single-employer licenses; this relationship stifles injury reporting and limits access to care, and increases occupational vulnerability. This paper is based on a time-series analysis that uses the period of 2005-2025 to model the inflow of migrant workers into Singapore with a time variable, a Post-COVID level indicator and Time×Post-COVID interaction to determine the structural changes around the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that the baseline time trend has a positive effect on the outcome over time (coefficient = 0.0384), that the occurrence of COVID is accompanied by a significant immediate decline of the outcome (coefficient = –0.3227), and that the post-COVID interaction suggests a positive change in the outcome growth thereafter (coefficient = 0.0383). Marginal-effects interpretation demonstrates a negative level effect at the onset of the COVID and faster growth afterward, which provisces that the shock decreased the levels, but was succeeded by an aggravated positive direction. These trends refer to both immediate negative effects of crises, as well as structural processes that require the policy to remedy, such as the enhancement of reporting protective measures, healthcare access, and structural labor reforms of migrant employees.

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme is Australia’s first long-term guestworker migration scheme. In recruiting workers from nine Pacific Island Countries and Timor-Leste to perform low-wage work for periods of up to four years, it leverages uneven regional development to create racialised and gendered situations of exception within Australia’s migration regime. PALM workers encounter exceptional spatial and temporal restrictions on their personal lives in Australia, which have to date been under-examined in a literature on migration and intimacy privileging the experiences of ‘middling migrants’. The ‘intimate chronomobilities’ of Pacific and Timorese migrant workers are constrained by relative immobility and extended periods of transnational family separation that impair the maintenance and navigation of personal relationships and family ties. Drawing on a combination of in-depth and semi-structured interviews with migrant workers, their family members and government stakeholders, this article reframes these experiences as ‘intimate chronoimmobilities’ to emphasise the restrictive interplay of space and time in PALM workers’ lives. By examining overlapping expressions of biographical, institutional and everyday space–time, we demonstrate how the scheme produces a spectrum of inequitable affordances for intimate life that jeopardise the welfare of workers and their families, standing as discriminatory aberrations within Australia’s migration regime.

ABSTRACT This study explores how childbirth differently shapes the career trajectories of men and women within the same couples, with a particular focus on gender disparities in experiencing downward labour transitions following the birth of their first child. Using a unique survey-administrative linked dataset, we track couples’labour market trajectories to analyse transitions from employment to unemployment, full-time to part-time employment, and higher-paid to lower-paid jobs. Additionally, the dataset allows to link partners, enabling the study of factors influencing differences in the probabilities of downward labour market transitions between partners in the same household. Our findings reveal substantial and persistent penalties for women, lasting up to three years after childbirth, which are mainly related to part-time job arrangements. When examining differences in probabilities within couples, households in which women have tertiary education with respect to their partners and are the primary earners exhibit smaller gender disparities in the likelihood of downward labour transitions with respect to other households.

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the Brazilian workers’ salary penalty due to informality. The quantile regressions, the Oaxaca-Blinder wage decomposition, and the propensity score matching (PSM) methodology were estimated using microdata from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey for 2016 and 2019. Evidence shows an increase in informality, a higher number of self-employed workers, and an overall wage reduction. Although there has also been a reduction in the number of informal working poor in the country, their lower wages compared to formal workers have been confirmed. The penalty of Informality is most severe for self-employed people. The level of penalty for informality is higher among poor workers, and wage punishment has increased in the period, which can generate a duration of household poverty.

Associations Between Housing Stability and Food Insecurity Among U.S. Low-Wage Workers.

Abstract Does the effectiveness of an education policy depend on the job opportunities in the local labor market? This paper provides a theoretical and empirical investigation of how schooling decisions respond to conditional cash transfer programs, across areas with different exposure to export manufacturing. Results show that Mexico’s PROGRESA program, documented to have increased educational attainment, was less effective in areas with more export-oriented manufacturing jobs. A theoretical model, combined with empirical evidence, suggests this is because these jobs generate more convex opportunity costs of schooling. Consistent with this, the heterogeneity documented is strongest among those old enough to be working in factory jobs. In addition, this heterogeneity is primarily driven by jobs that directly influence schooling opportunity costs: low-wage jobs and jobs for school-aged workers.

This study examines the causes and factors of the prevalence of working poverty among workers in the Sudanese labour market and its impacts on families’ food security. A poor worker is defined as a person who is employed in a job in the labour market but lives in a poor household. This branch of labour economics merges labour market input with welfare economics. Households’ extreme poverty with working members is a widespread phenomenon in many developing countries and has serious consequences for productivity and well-being. This study employs an instrumental variable binary probit model to control for endogeneity between household food shortage propensity and wages, using cross-sectional data from the 2022 Labour Market Framework Survey in Sudan. We construct a household food shortage indicator as a proxy measure for in-work poverty. The results demonstrate that more than 40% of workers in Sudan live in extreme poverty. The model reveals that a 100% increase in wages would reduce the tendency towards poor household’s food shortages by 50%–60%. Wages should be increased at least threefold to eliminate food shortages due to poor working families’ lack of resources prior to the necessary increase to meet other basic living needs such as education, health, adequate housing and other concerns. This means that Sudan must substantially restructure the current labour market and wages to eliminate working poverty.

BackgroundSri Lanka was certified malaria-free by the World Health Organization in 2016 and has remained so since then. Yet, imported malaria cases and the presence of mosquito vectors in parts of the country threaten the re-establishment of malaria.MethodsData on imported malaria cases diagnosed from 2013 to 2023 in Sri Lanka were extracted from the National Malaria Database containing detailed data on every case of malaria maintained at the Anti Malaria Campaign, Sri Lanka. Descriptive analyses were carried out to characterize imported malaria in the country.ResultsA total of 532 imported malaria cases were reported during the study period, over half of them (68.5%) were those who traveled for employment as low-wage or high-wage workers. Infections with all four human malaria species were imported, with a majority being Plasmodium (P.) falciparum (48.1%), most acquired in Africa, and P. vivax (40.5%), most acquired in India. Imported P. ovale infections took longer to manifest clinically from time of travel (median 95 days) than did other Plasmodia infections (median 14 days). Infections with P. malariae took longer to diagnose from onset of illness (median 15.5 days) than other Plasmodium species (median 4–6 days). Patients accessed healthcare for their malaria illness sooner (geometric mean = 2.42 days) than physicians took to diagnose malaria (geometric mean 3.41 days) (p < 0.001). Seven patients with P. falciparum recrudesced and three with P. vivax relapsed. Forty-six imported malaria cases were severe, all but one due to P. falciparum, and one death occurred among them over the study period. Epidemiological features of imported malaria were species-specific and related to the biology of the Plasmodium species.ConclusionsA large proportion of imported malaria, predominantly P. falciparum and P. vivax, was associated with work-related travel. The parasite species incidence over the years followed trends of incidence reported from Africa and India from where they were predominantly imported. The delay in diagnosing imported malaria which increases the risk of morbidity and mortality, and also risks the re-establishment of malaria in the country were mainly on the part of the physicians and not due to patients delaying seeking treatment.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s44263-026-00242-5.

Vaccine hesitancy is responsible for the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in Nigeria due to suboptimal immunization as seen in urban slums. Older women are traditionally influential in infant health decision-making in African communities; however, their roles in addressing vaccine hesitancy remain underexplored. This study explored the perceived reasons for vaccine hesitancy and methods employed by older women to address vaccine hesitancy in selected urban slum communities in Ibadan, Nigeria. Narrative study design was adopted, and 22 focus group discussions were conducted with 175 older women from seven urban slum communities. Content analysis was used to analyze the data using the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) ‘3 Cs’ model of vaccine hesitancy (complacency, convenience, confidence) and vaccine hesitancy determinant matrix. Perceived causes of vaccine hesitancy included poor knowledge about the importance of vaccines, parental nonchalance, low vaccination priority (Complacency), long clinic waiting times and vaccine stockouts (Convenience), mistrust of volunteers, poor healthcare workers’ attitude, immunization misconceptions, and previous negative experiences (Confidence). Older women addressed vaccine hesitancy through community mobilization, engagement with religious leaders, advocacy at the individual level, and by supporting trust in qualified health personnel. The older women demonstrated significant potential as key resources for addressing vaccine hesitancy. Leveraging their roles by formalizing their involvement in immunization programs could enhance the vaccination uptake in urban slum communities. Also, the existing approaches for handling vaccine hesitancy can be standardized to improve vaccination uptake.

This article examines labor market dynamics in Bulgaria, Italy, and the United Kingdom by integrating demographic pressures, wage and labor cost adjustment, redistribution mechanisms, inequality outcomes, and digital readiness into a single comparative framework. This study first applies hierarchical clustering to a harmonized EU country panel for 2017–2024, using GDP per capita in PPS, average annual wage, and unemployment rate to position the three countries within the European convergence space and income–labor cost groupings. The results show that Bulgaria belongs to a low-income, fast-converging group, with nominal wages and hourly labor costs more than doubling, strong real-wage growth from a low base, and an improving price level index. At the same time, unemployment fell to below the EU average, yet income inequality remains persistently high. Italy represents a high-income but slow-growing labor market, in which real wages have declined, and labor costs per hour remain above the EU mean with a significant non-wage component. Unemployment remains relatively elevated, indicating divergence in workers’ purchasing power despite high income levels. The UK has labor costs in the mature high-income range, low unemployment, and the lowest tax wedge for low-wage workers, but with relatively high and volatile inequality. This study shows that wage dynamics, labor cost composition, and tax–benefit structures jointly mediate the translation of macroeconomic performance into household outcomes, generating distinct policy trade-offs across the three labor market configurations. Digital indicators further suggest that income level is not a sufficient predictor of digital engagement and that the observed aggregate labor market trends do not indicate a sharp employment contraction contemporaneous with the diffusion of technical innovations, such as generative AI.

This study examines the paradoxical nature of Indonesia's governance of mobile artificial intelligence (AI), where regulatory discourse promises ethical protection yet simultaneously produces new forms of social exposure. Through qualitative analysis of key policy documents, ethics guidelines, and stakeholder commentary, this research investigates how state, industry, and academic actors frame the promises and risks of mobile-AI systems. The analysis is guided by communication rights theory, the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), and communication ecology perspectives. It identifies three dominant patterns: first, Indonesia’s governance relies heavily on aspirational yet non-binding soft-law instruments, limiting accountability; second, national and industrial narratives predominantly position AI as an engine for economic growth under the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision, often obscuring structural risks like algorithmic bias and data exploitation; and third, regulatory frameworks tend to overlook vulnerable groups—including low-wage workers, women, and rural communities—whose mobile communication practices are disproportionately exposed to harm. The article argues that Indonesia's current approach creates a critical gap between policy intent and lived experience. It concludes that a stronger, communication-rights-based regulatory framework is essential to ensure equitable and accountable mobile-AI futures in Indonesian society.

This report examines the economic and social characteristics of Palestinian women working in Israeli settlements, analysing income levels, poverty, and related issues. It utilizes field surveys and interviews, with a focus on women living in the communities of the Jordan Valley. The findings show that most women working in settlements are employed in low-wage jobs in the agriculture and food processing sectors, often due to limited job opportunities in the local market, wage gaps, and financial need. The report emphasizes the lost opportunity cost to the local economy and proposes policies that would promote long-term local employment opportunities.

Modern supply chains often hide low-wage workers, unsafe conditions, and environmental harm, even when companies say they are doing corporate social responsibility (CSR). New human-rights due-diligence laws show that traditional CSR reports and audits are not enough to prevent abuse in complex value chains. This paper explores CSR as redemption, using biblical texts such as Micah 6:8, Isaiah 58, and Luke 19:8 to imagine business as part of God’s work of justice and restoration. We link this vision with recent research on faith-driven CSR, supply-chain due diligence, worker-driven social responsibility programmes, and restorative justice in corporate settings. We then propose a simple conceptual framework that connects biblical redemption, ethical leadership, and practical steps like fair contracts, worker voice, and reparations. The aim is to help firms, churches, and civil society pursue supply chains that protect dignity and repair harm.

In patriarchal societies, the struggle of women, who are often seen as secondary, against the injustices created by the male-dominated system has developed and expanded over time, transforming into a political movement. Feminism, which dates back to the 18th century and refers to women's struggle for equality in economic, cultural, social, and political spheres, has been the subject of study in various fields, particularly the social sciences, up to the present day. The fundamental starting point of Marxist feminism, which came to the fore in the 1960s, is not to oppose the individual, biological, or cultural oppression of women. Marxist feminists criticize the exploitation of women's domestic labor and the tendency for working women to be directed toward low-paying jobs. Drawing its fundamental theory from the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Marxist Feminism is a feminist theory that opposes the exploitation of women, who can be thought of as “proletarians,” by men, who can be thought of as “bourgeois.” According to Marxist feminists, in order to liberate women from being individuals subordinate to men by examining the family within the capitalist system, a socialist and egalitarian system is necessary. The aim of this study is to analyze Ülker Köksal's play “Adam's Rib Bone” (1980), one of the most striking examples of 20th-century Turkish theater, from a Marxist feminist perspective. Köksal's play addresses the exploitation of women's labor within the family and the enslavement of women, gender inequality in domestic roles, and the dominance of male ideology in the public sphere. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the play titled Adam's Rib Bone is a work that supports Marxist ideology and provides significant examples of the destructive effects of masculine ideology on women.

This paper explores how Bosnia and Herzegovina’s fragmented welfare system responds to the needs of transnational labour migrant families, a problem of growing significance as the country transitions from an emigration context to a destination for low-wage foreign workers. Gaps in access to healthcare, education, and family services generate social inequalities that risk long-term exclusion. The objective of the study is to identify the administrative, legal, and political barriers migrant families face and to provide recommendations for improving institutional responses. Methodologically, the paper relies on narrative policy analysis and legal-institutional review, with a theoretical grounding in transnational social protection, governance studies, and intersectionality. The sample consists of relevant legislation, strategic policy documents, and public discourse, complemented by regional comparisons with Croatia and Serbia. The findings demonstrate that access to social rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains tightly linked to employment contracts and residency permits, leaving many families without adequate protection. Moreover, public and political narratives o!en racialise migrants or reduce them to purely economic actors, overlooking their broader social vulnerabilities. The paper concludes that Bosnia and Herzegovina must develop a centralised, rights-based welfare framework to address the structural exclusion of transnational families. Recommendations include strengthening institutional coordination, depoliticising migration in public debate, and adapting social services to the needs of migrant workers and their children.

The unorganized sector in India employs a significant share of the female workforce, yet their contributions remain largely invisible in national statistics and policy frameworks. This study explores the socio-economic conditions of women workers in India’s unorganized sector, focusing on employment patterns, income disparities, working conditions, and social security access. Using a mixed-method approach that integrates field survey data with secondary sources, the research investigates how gender-based labor segmentation, wage inequality, and lack of institutional support affect women’s economic well-being. Findings indicate that women in informal employment face multidimensional vulnerabilities, including unstable income, long working hours, occupational insecurity, and limited decision-making autonomy. The study underscores that the intersection of gender, caste, and class perpetuates these inequalities, with female workers concentrated in low-skilled, low-paying, and precarious jobs. Policy recommendations include promoting gender-responsive labor regulations, social protection measures, and access to financial literacy and microcredit. By highlighting the economic realities of women in the unorganized sector, this study contributes to a more inclusive understanding of labor and gender dynamics in India’s evolving economy.

ABSTRACT Using nationally representative data on Chinese migrant workers (2013–2018), we show that individuals just above age 35 earn about 100 yuan less per month than those just below. This wage gap stems from reduced access to formal contracts and a shift to lower-paying jobs. Additional evidence shows that workplace age discrimination leads to longer working hours and reduced efficiency. Those over 35 are also less likely to receive social insurance or housing fund benefits. Despite limited job opportunities, many stay in large cities for the sake of their children’s education.

Abstract A common concern surrounding minimum wage policies is their impact on independent businesses, which are often feared to be less able to bear or pass on cost increases. We examine how these typically small- and medium-size firms accommodate minimum wage increases along product and labor market margins using a matched owner-firm-worker panel dataset drawn from the universe of U.S. tax records over a 10-year period, and using state minimum wage changes as identifying variation. We find that, on average, firms in highly exposed industries do not substantially reduce employment — they do not layoff workers but moderately reduce part-time hiring. Instead, these firms are able to fully finance the new labor costs with new revenues, leaving average owner profits unchanged. Higher wage floors, however, forestall entry, particularly of less productive firms, reducing the number of independent firms operating in these industries by roughly 2%. Yet, these industries do not shrink; instead, incumbent responses and strong positive selection among entrants reshape industries that rely heavily on low-wage workers, yielding fewer but more productive firms after the cost shock. We also take a worker-level perspective to examine how potentially vulnerable individuals are affected by minimum wage increases. Using panels of low-earning and young workers, we find that their average earnings rise substantially with the minimum wage, while they are no less likely to be employed. Worker transitions indicate that minimum wage increases boost retention and that worker reallocation from independent firms toward corporations buffers disemployment impacts from reduced hiring at independent firms.