The U.S. government’s minimum-wage enforcers plan to zero in on the warehouse and logistics industry, amplifying scrutiny of a sector criticized during the pandemic for its labor practices.
A combination of explosive growth, low wages and the widespread use of contract staff demands that greater attention be paid to how the sector treats its “essential workers,” Jessica Looman, the acting administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, said in an interview Tuesday. “We want to make sure that the outcome, as we’re continuing to move out of this pandemic, hasn’t been an opportunity for greater exploitation of workers, but instead that we have learned a lot of lessons and it can be an opportunity to empower more workers.”
