Illinois Statutes Chapter 820. Employment § 175/2. Legislative Findings

§ 2. Legislative Findings. The General Assembly finds as follows:

Since the passage of this Act, the number of workers who work as day or temporary laborers in Illinois has risen from approximately 300,000 to more than 650,000 according to data collected by the Department of Labor.

Since the passage of this Act, the number of day labor and temporary labor service agencies registered in Illinois has risen from approximately 150 with 600 branch offices to over 300 with over 800 branch offices. In addition, there still exists a significant, though unknown, number of unregistered day labor and temporary labor service agencies that operate outside the radar of law enforcement.

Recent studies and a survey of low-wage day or temporary laborers themselves have consistently found that as a group, they are particularly vulnerable to abuse of their labor rights, including unpaid wages, failure to pay for all hours worked, minimum wage and overtime violations, and unlawful deductions from pay for meals, transportation, equipment, and other items.

Current law is inadequate to protect the labor and employment rights of these workers.

At the same time, in Illinois and in other states, democratically run nonprofit day labor centers, which charge no fee for their services, have been established to provide an alternative for day or temporary laborers to solicit work on street corners. These centers are not subject to this Act.