Closing the Enforcement Gap

Book excerpt: "This manuscript explores the enforcement of employment standards, using a mixed-methods approach to examine Ontario as a case study. Drawing on interviews with workers, community advocates, and enforcement officials as well as new archival research, the manuscript demonstrates that enforcement of the province's Employment Standards Act fails too many workers. In the second part of the manuscript, scholars from the US, UK, Australia, and Quebec present "views from elsewhere" to compare and contrast their cases with that of Ontario, drawing out a widespread "enforcement gap" that pervades nearly all aspects of employment standards. In the end, the manuscript surveys innovative enforcement models that are emerging in a number of jurisdictions and sets out a new vision for the enforcement of employment standards."--