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Articles by Siobhan Standaert
Dollar Stores Are No Bargain
This is part one of a two-part series on dollar stores and corporate accountability. Dollar stores sell themselves on providing low-cost items for shoppers. But what customers are actually paying isn’t always what’s advertised on the shelves. Overcharging consumers for daily goods is just another way that dollar stores are preying on local communities.
States Beat Out Federal Wage and Hour Enforcement
The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection just announced its largest settlement to date: $131.5 million from DoorDash for underpaying its delivery drivers. State and local-level wage and hour enforcement has now surpassed that of the federal Wage and Hour Division (WHD) by more than ten-fold. Since 2025, state Attorneys General, labor commissioners, and select local agencies have collected over $500 million in fines and settlements for wage violations.
Corporate Abuse is Rampant Globally and Regulation is Uneven, Violation Tracker Global Reveals
Good Jobs First, a national NGO that tracks corporate and government accountability, just launched Violation Tracker Global, a database that covers corporate misconduct in 45 countries. Here are some of our early findings: Cases by Country There are wide variations in the regulatory landscape between countries.
Strategies to Combat Child Labor Beyond Civil Penalties
Between 2017 and 2022, civil penalties for federal child labor violations rose 130%–and the number of minors affected nearly doubled. Even still, penalty amounts remain shockingly low, with an average of less than $3,000 per child worker. These findings come from a newly released report by Good Jobs First that identifies the companies behind the surge in illegal child labor.
The Companies Behind the Surge in Illegal Child Labor
An analysis of federal enforcement data finds that the companies most responsible for a surge in illegal child labor during the past decade are major retail and restaurant chains. Although child labor penalties are shockingly low, some employers have nonetheless racked up substantial cumulative fines. Topping the list is the private equity firm Roark Capital, whose portfolio companies accounted for $1.7 million in penalties across 2,000 violations.
Pennsylvania Cyber Charter Schools Fail Black and Brown Students
Note: This is the sixth in a series of quarterly reports produced by Good Jobs First that look at the relationship between race, ethnicity, and economic development. Summary Despite having the same amount of funding per student as brick-and-mortar schools, Pennsylvania’s all-online cyber charter schools have lower graduation rates and performance measures across most subjects. The discrepancies are especially severe for Black and Brown students.
Restaurant Industry Cheats Workers in New York State
Wage theft cases account for a significant portion of the information in the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker, but until recently, we were missing data from a key enforcement agency: the New York Department of Labor (NY DOL). After a protracted effort (more on this below), we received data on over 77,000 enforcement actions taken by the agency between 2013 and 2023, accounting for $434 million in penalties.
The Unseen Cost of Pricing Algorithms
U.S. antitrust enforcers are now turning their attention to an overlooked business practice: the use of algorithms. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) released new guidelines earlier this month outlining the role of algorithms in determining prices for businesses. The message was clear: price-fixing through an algorithm is, in fact, still price-fixing. This announcement came in the wake of several lawsuits in the hospitality and real estate industries.
A Perilous Gap: Government Regulatory Enforcement in the United Kingdom vs the United States
Executive Summary Using our two unique databases on corporate misconduct, Violation Tracker and Violation Tracker UK, we find that total penalties issued by US regulators since 2010 are substantially higher than those issued by their UK counterparts. These differences are especially salient: In the UK, there are far fewer cases against large companies, particularly when it comes to price-fixing.
Corporate Penalties Reach $1 Trillion; State Enforcement Accounts for One-Fifth
Corporations in the United States have now paid more than $1 trillion since 2000 in regulatory fines, criminal penalties, and class-action settlements. This staggering total comes from a just-released report by Good Jobs First. What stands out is the exponential growth of the fines, as detailed in Violation Tracker, a wide-ranging database containing information on more than 600,000 cases from 500 federal, state, and local regulatory agencies and prosecutors.
The High Cost of Misconduct: Corporate Penalties Reach the Trillion-Dollar Mark
Regulatory fines, criminal penalties, and class-action settlements paid by corporations in the United States since 2000 have now surpassed $1 trillion. Total payouts for corporate misconduct grew from around $7 billion per year in the early 2000s to more than $50 billion annually in recent years, according to a new report by Good Jobs First. This amounts to a seven-fold increase in current dollars — a 300% increase in constant dollars.
Cannabis Regulation: States Begin Cracking Down on Companies Blowing Smoke
While the federal government still regards marijuana as an illegal drug, medical use of cannabis has been legalized in 40 states; recreational use by adults has been approved in 24. With legalization has come a new system of regulation of producers and retailers. And where there are rules, there will be violations. We are now collecting data on those cases in Violation Tracker.
Sunshine Week: The Golden State (California) Gets a Gold Star
Note: Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the then-American Society of Newspaper Editors. It is designed to draw attention to the perils of a secretive government and the critical importance of an open, transparent government. This year, Good Jobs First celebrates by highlighting places modeling great transparency around economic development incentives and corporate behavior. In 2022, California classified wage theft as a felony charge if underpaid wages exceed $950.
2023: Violation Tracker records $43 billion in penalties
In 2023, Violation Tracker published nearly 25,000 new cases totaling $43 billion in penalties. Here’s what we found. Highest Individual Penalties: The largest penalty of the year was an $8.9 billion settlement in a product safety class action case.
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