Day labor

Day labor (or day labour in Commonwealth spelling) is work done where the worker is hired and paid one day at a time, with no promise that more work will be available in the future. It is a form of contingent work.

Day laborers find work through three common routes.

Firstly, some employment agencies specialize in very short-term contracts for manual labor most often in construction, factories, offices, and manufacturing. These companies usually have offices where workers can arrive and be assigned to a job on the spot, as they are available.

Secondly, a manager looking for additional labor to fill an unexpected change in plans is presented with a problem of finding the needed quantity of labor with the right skills. Imagine the magnitude of the task of looking for workers, on the side of the street or by calling various employment agencies, who can verify that they are journeyman asphalt rakers, typists, programmers, etc. The benefit of representation is applied to both the labor and employer. Labor is given a source of recourse to achieve a safe work environment free of favoritism and arbitrary work assignments. Employers benefit from organized labor training programs, benefit plans, dispute resolution and a labor supply meeting most employers labor demand at most any time or place. The benefit of a labor supply arriving at a specified time and location within less than a day's notice is reduced overhead resources.

Thirdly and less formally, workers meet at well-known locations, usually public street corners or commercial parking lots, and wait for building contractors, landscapers, home owners and small business owners, and other potential employers to offer work. Much of this work is in small residential construction or landscaping. These workers earn, on average, $8–$10 an hour. The media and a study by UCLA portrays day laborers as being illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America, who otherwise can't get work due to current employment regulations. Other research has found that day laborers are not typically illegal immigrants, many even being citizens of the US, and that day labor is often a transition to full-time work.

Informal day labor is not new to the United States, and day laborers are not always migrant workers in many cases. In his study of day laborers in Atlanta, Terry Easton interviews white and black day laborers in addition to Hispanic workers. Many other metropolitan areas still have non-immigrant day laborers, and many other large and small cities have immigrant day laborers from a variety of countries, including Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Central and South America, and countries in Africa. Non-immigrant informal day labor, seen in many cities, does not generate the controversy or calls to police and local government seen when immigrant day laborers gather to wait for work.

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