California Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined YNT Harvesting $26,000 after a 54-year old peach worker died of a heart attack near Kettleman Hills on May 8, 2007. YNT was fined for not having written emergency procedures. FLC Yolanda Calvillo said she operated her firm in a manner similar to that of other FLCs.

The Grower-Shipper Association of Central California represents most of the largest growers of leafy green vegetables such as iceberg lettuce. Its list of the top ten issues for 2008 included five related to labor: immigration reform, labor laws, wages, health insurance and farm worker housing. Other California farm organizations listed immigration reform as their top issue for 2008, and included minimum wages and labor laws.

DOL's Wage and Hour Division and the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles launched the EMPLEO (Employment Education and Outreach) program in 2004 to educate Spanish-speaking workers (regardless of immigration status) about their rights to the federal minimum wage and overtime pay. In many cases, newly arrived workers are not paid for overtime hours. Many learn that they are entitled to overtime when they have a complaint about something else and someone advises them to call (877) 55-AYUDA, where volunteers answer the phone and refer what appear to be legitimate complaints to DOL investigators.

In March 2007, California Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet announced a suit against New Orleans-based Tidy Building Services, alleging that Tidy made agreements with San Diego-area property owners for janitorial services that were financially insufficient to meet state law requirements. The subcontractors Tidy used to hire janitors could not meet their social security and unemployment insurance tax obligations.

The Los Angeles Times reported on March 23, 2008 that many Los Angeles-area car washes violated labor and immigration laws with little risk of enforcement- in some cases, workers earn only tips from customers. California's minimum wage has been $8 an hour since January 1, 2008, but most of the 1,000 car washes in Southern California do not pay their mostly unauthorized migrants the minimum wage. California has a total of 1,600 car washes, and 7,000 to 18,000 car wash employees. Immigration agents have not raided a car wash in four years.

Car washes average $1 million a year in revenue, and the Western Carwash Association wants more enforcement and higher fines to drive marginal operators, some of whom charge as little as $8 a car, out of business. An influx of immigrants in the 1990s led to the replacement of automatic car washes with hand washers. Car washes that use hand labor are cheap to open, and it is estimated that 40 percent are not registered with the state.

Between 2003 and 2007, state labor inspectors fined car washes almost $5 million for violations, but most of the fines remained with the state. Underpaid workers can sue, but many of those who are unauthorized workers later withdraw their claims to avoid being reported to immigration authorities. The United Steelworkers Union is attempting to organize the car-wash workers.

Sonia Nazario and Doug Smith, "Inspectors find dirt on books at Southern Calif. Carwashes," Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2008. Anna Gorman, "Making the job fair for everyone," Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2008.