Wage Theft and Worker Exploitation in Health Care

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a great irony in the labor market: workers essential to social functioning and safety are among the least valued by pay. Support workers (eg, medical assistants), direct care workers (eg, nursing assistants and personal care aides), and service workers (eg, janitors and food preparers) have long experienced wage theft and exploitation, although health care organizations would cease functioning without them. The health sector has opportunities to revisit wage hierarchies and to ensure living wages for these workers.