Wage Gaps and Outcomes in Apprenticeship Programs

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

The Effects of Gender, Race, and Region

By Daniella Zessoules and Olugbenga Ajilore
Posted on December 12, 2018, 12:01 am

Policymakers frequently approach the question of developing the workforce to meet the needs of the 21st century. Despite today’s historically low unemployment rates, wages for typical workers have barely budged for decades. While productivity has increased, gains have largely trickled to the richest Americans, exasperating persisting income inequality and painting an ominous picture of middle-class living standards. Furthermore, gaps in both wealth and income by race and gender have caused disproportionate labor market penalties for certain groups. Wage gaps and growing income inequality along racial lines have persisted despite higher educational attainment. For example, earning a bachelor’s degree or higher has not proven to reduce either the black-white or the Latinx-white wage gap. Meanwhile, employers are spending less on worker training than they used to. And too often, the training that they do provide is firm-specific, meaning that those skills do not translate well to other firms.

Registered Apprenticeship programs, which have bipartisan support, aim to address this issue by connecting Americans to decent-paying jobs as electricians, carpenters, and dental assistants, among others. The program, which the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) administers through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, aims to help businesses develop highly skilled employees through hands-on customized training for a variety of occupations. The DOL asserts that the average hourly wage for a journeyperson who completes an apprenticeship is $23.94, equivalent to an annual salary of $49,795.

Investments in the workforce of tomorrow are necessary both to ensure pathways to relevant economic opportunities as well as to bridge economic disparities along racial and gender lines-including racial wealth and pay gaps-that continue to plague families across the country. Unfortunately, data on Registered Apprenticeship programs identify prominent economic disparities among women and people of color-many of whom face low enrollment rates within such programs and are concentrated in lower-paying occupations.

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On the wage theft beat

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Shortchanged: An in-depth look at wage theft

By DYLAN THOMAS
APRIL 19, 2016

If labor activists have turned up the volume on the discussion around wage theft, that’s a good thing, said John Aiken, director of the Apprenticeship and Labor Standards Division of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, the state agency that investigates worker complaints.

“What that is doing is raising the profile of this issue and, hopefully as one of the consequences of this, is driving people to this office to seek the assistance that they deserve,” Aiken said.

The department receives more than 20,000 inquiries each year. While some of the phone calls and emails concern child labor laws, the majority of complaints fall into the category of illegal activity commonly known as “wage theft,” including workers who never received a final paycheck from a previous employer, weren’t paid overtime or had illegal deductions taken out of their wages.

The increased attention being paid to wage theft has thrown a spotlight on the laws that are meant to protect workers, employers who seem to flout the rules and the resources that are available to go after lawbreakers. Both state agencies and their federal counterparts at the U.S. Department of Labor are noticing.
“As a person who does law enforcement, I would always like a bigger staff,” David King, district director for the federal Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division office in Minneapolis, said. “We could always find work for people to do. There’s lots of things that can be done to help protect workers. That’s just a reality.

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