Corporate Profits and Workers’ Rights

By Calista Dykes

The Law Students on Workers’ Rights series publishes essays from current and incoming students at some of the top law schools in the country. These essays, submitted for the Charles E. Joseph Employment Law Scholarship, address the question “What are the biggest challenges facing workers’ rights in the future?”

United States workers face a multitude of challenges, ranging from the looming possibility of artificial intelligence overtaking the job market to more pervasive issues such as wage theft, delayed payment, and denied rest breaks. Although seemingly different, these harmful obstacles that stand in the way of improved workers’ rights all share a common root: greed. Corporations’ desires to achieve maximum profit at a minimal cost has remained as the biggest threat to workers’ rights throughout history, and will still pose as a major challenge to achieving a higher standard of employee wellbeing in the future; this is evident through historical developments for labor law in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recent judicial decisions, and current corporate resistance to social movements. 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, child labor was a prevalent form of economic exploitation in the United States. Many corporations resisted efforts to regulate and eliminate child labor, which posed a major threat to the progression of workers’ rights as a whole. Industries such as coal mining and textile mills vehemently opposed better workers’ rights, fearing the impact on their profits. The infamous case of the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 exemplifies this struggle. Despite efforts to protect children from hazardous and unfair labor practices, powerful business interests successfully lobbied against the bill, leading to its defeat in the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hammer v. Dagenhart in 1918. This ruling, symbolic of the corporate greed’s triumph over human welfare, persisted until it was eventually overturned years later in 1941. The case of the initially unsuccessful Keating-Owen Child Labor Act serves as a testament to the enduring legacy of greed in shaping labor laws and practices—thus, contributing to the pattern of greed acting as the biggest challenge to workers’ rights to date.

More recently, the 2018 case of Salazar v. McDonald’s Corp. highlights how corporate greed even works to undermine labor protections already in place. Despite legislation drastically improving workers’ rights since the early 1900s, corporations still find ways to exploit their employees without hurting their bottom lines. In this case, a California judge ruled that McDonald’s was not liable for labor law violations committed by its franchises, such as wage and hour violations, freeing the company from taking accountability for the mistreatment of its workers. The case’s ruling on franchise models allows corporations to expand rapidly and reap immense profits while distancing themselves from legal liabilities, which exemplifies the insidious nature of greed within the corporate framework. As a result, it is likely labor law violations continue to persist within McDonald’s franchises and similar businesses, ultimately perpetuating exploitation while protecting corporate interests in the future. 

Furthermore, greed undermines contemporary social movements advocating for improved workers’ rights, as seen by recent efforts at union busting. Corporations such as Starbucks and Trader Joe’s actively impair their employees’ efforts at unionizing. For instance, a complaint was recently filed with the National Labor Relations Board due to a Trader Joe’s store in Oakland, California actively preventing its workers from unionizing. The complaint cites a manager calling a group of employees intending to unionize a gang, threats of reduced hours and employee transfers, as well as a prohibition on discussions about unionizing during work hours. Despite the company’s threats, the union was approved in 2023. However, the issue is still ongoing as Trader Joe’s must file a response as well as attend a hearing in October 2024. The ongoing pursuit of maximum profit and minimal costs at the expense of workers’ rights to form unions obstructs meaningful progress in the realm of labor protections. The recency of these union-busting attempts illustrate how corporate greed is alive and thriving—posing a threat to workers’ rights in the future. 

Therefore, the historical developments, recent judicial decisions, and obstacles to current social movements collectively reinforce greed’s detrimental status as one of the biggest challenges to workers’ rights throughout time. From the United State’s age of industry to the digital era, corporations have relentlessly pursued profit at the expense of human dignity and wellbeing, corroding labor protections and perpetuating employment injustice. However, there is a glimmer of hope amidst these challenges: the unwavering commitment of legal professionals, activists, and workers themselves who advocate for a more equitable future. The collective action amongst these people is required to dismantle systems of greed that further injustices, and ensure the fight for improved workers’ rights continues. Creating workplace cultures that prioritize accountability, equity, and empathy will minimize greed’s reach on present and future generations, fostering a society that holds workers’ rights paramount.

Reflections from Charles Joseph

History shows that corporations will prioritize profits, even at the expense of their workers. With an estimated $50 billion per year stolen from workers in the form of wage theft, companies sometimes literally steal from their employees. 

Unfortunately, legislation and court rulings do not always protect workers. That makes the role of employment lawyers even more important for protecting the rights of workers.

Calista Dykes holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Monterey Bay. She will join the class of 2027 at University of Maine School of Law. Contact Dykes on LinkedIn. 

Charles Joseph has over two decades of experience as an NYC employment lawyer. He is the founder of Working Now and Then and the founding partner of Joseph and Kirschenbaum, a firm that has recovered over $140 million for clients.