Labor
What Work Is Like in the U.S.
Employers Have Exploited and Abused H-2A Farmworkers for Years. It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way.
The seasonal visa program has failed to protect migrant farmworkers from wage theft, forced labor, violence and death. Experts, lawyers and advocates say there are ways to reduce and even stop the harms.
Texas Talks Tough on Immigration. But Lawmakers Won’t Force Most Private Companies to Check Employment Authorization.
Texas’ conservative Legislature has again and again refused to mandate that most private businesses use E-Verify. Experts say that Republican resistance is rooted in how the system could impact the state’s labor supply and economy.
In Cambodia, Our Journalists Put Nike’s Claims About Factory Conditions to the Test
ProPublica reporter Rob Davis began with a simple question: Had Nike truly become a beacon of environmental stewardship and fair labor practices, as it claimed? To find the answer, he had to travel across the Pacific Ocean.
Nike Repeatedly Raised Concerns About Repression in Cambodia. It Expanded Its Factory Workforce There Anyway.
Nike’s continued growth in Cambodia underscores the level of political and labor repression the company has been willing to tolerate in countries that provide inexpensive labor.
Featured Reporters
Impact of Our Reporting
Customer Service Company That Worked With Disney, Comcast Will Pay $2M to Workers to Settle Lawsuit Over Pay Practices
The D.C. attorney general settled with Arise Virtual Solutions for misclassifying workers as “independent contractors.” The action followed a ProPublica story that outlined the violations.
Proposed Wage Theft Legislation Would Strip Violators of Their Ability to Do Business in New York
“We did not have the data to understand the scale of the issue in New York State until the ProPublica and Documented series came out last year,” state Sen. Jessica Ramos said.
Local Reporting Network
Aprueban $8 millones para viviendas para obreros de granjas. La policía intentará cerrar las brechas lingüísticas.
Funcionarios electos del Condado Dane en Wisconsin dijeron que las reformas responden a la investigación de ProPublica sobre la muerte de un niño nicaragüense en una granja lechera en 2019.
Series
Series: Nike’s Gold Standard: Testing Nike’s Corporate Responsibility Claims
Series: Waiting on Paychecks: New York’s Rampant Wage Theft Goes Unpunished
Series: Peligro en las granjas: Los obreros en la sombra de la industria lechera
Series: America’s Dairyland: Risking Workers’ Lives for the Milk We Drink
Series: The New Sweatshop: The Secretive World of Work-At-Home Customer Service
Series: On the Line: How the Meatpacking Industry Became a Hotbed of COVID-19
Series: Trashed: Inside New York’s Deadly Private Garbage Industry
Series: Half-life: Nuke Lab Workers Getting Sick
Series: Temp Land: Lost Wages, High Injury Rates, Few Benefits
Series: Insult to Injury: America’s Vanishing Worker Protections
What We’re Watching
During Donald Trump’s second presidency, ProPublica will focus on the areas most in need of scrutiny. Here are some of the issues our reporters will be watching — and how to get in touch with them securely.
Learn more about our reporting team. We will continue to share our areas of interest as the news develops.
Sharon Lerner
I cover health and the environment and the agencies that govern them, including the Environmental Protection Agency.
Andy Kroll
I cover justice and the rule of law, including the Justice Department, U.S. attorneys and the courts.
Melissa Sanchez
I report on immigration and labor, and I am based in Chicago.
Jesse Coburn
I cover housing and transportation, including the companies working in those fields and the regulators overseeing them.
If you don’t have a specific tip or story in mind, we could still use your help. Sign up to be a member of our federal worker source network to stay in touch.
