This report provides a guide to an employee’s legal rights at work as well as a list of advocacy organizations that can assist in understanding and enforcing these rights in the workplace. This is a useful resource for worker advocates and other practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of the statutes that address protected identities, wage theft, unemployment benefits, and more.

Today, roughly four million Americans earn wages at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. For a family of four, this wage falls beneath the poverty line. As President Obama recently stated in his State of the Union Address, in the wealthiest nation on earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty. However, the problem of working people living in poverty continues to grow. Low wage jobs have made up the majority of new jobs coming out of the recession and are projected to comprise a substantial share of the jobs that will be created in the coming decade. Given that the wage floor has far-reaching effects on the economy, meaningful consideration of its impact on workers, consumer spending, income inequality and other issues is vital.

This event features a successful business leader and philanthropist, a leading conservative voice, a workers’ rights advocate, and a prominent researcher discussing how raising the minimum wage could contribute to addressing our jobs challenge. The event is the first discussion in an Aspen Institute series titled Working in America, which focuses on ideas and policies to improve opportunities for American workers.

This report illustrates the state of low-wage work in the retail industry and provides a profile of the Retail Action Project, an organization striving to improve job quality in retail.