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Mobilizing Frontline Workers Against Wage Theft

Terri Adams-Fuller et al.

Labor Studies Journal2025https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x241313255article
AJG 2ABDC B
Weight
0.37

What the paper says

We use an original survey of frontline U.S. workers in five low-wage industries to investigate the prevalence of perceived wage theft and the effectiveness of messages aimed at mobilizing in response. We find that over 14% of workers report recent incidents of late- or underpayment. These workers are both more supportive of union representation and more willing to search for a new job. Using an embedded survey experiment, we study workers’ willingness to respond to a “call to action” on behalf of coworkers experiencing wage theft. Whether the call to action comes from a hypothetical neighbor or a coworker, mobilizing messages are equally effective at increasing a willingness to take a variety of actions. We also uncover important gender differences; our treatment effects are detectable only among female respondents. The findings are consistent with a “whole worker” approach to organizing while also highlighting wage theft as a salient issue, especially among women.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x241313255

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@article{terri2025,
  title        = {{Mobilizing Frontline Workers Against Wage Theft}},
  author       = {Terri Adams-Fuller et al.},
  journal      = {Labor Studies Journal},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x241313255},
}

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.