Decentering the Firm: The Limited Liability Company and Low-Wage Immigrant Women Workers

Authors

Miriam A. Cherry, St. John's University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

UC Davis Law Review

Publication Date

2006

Volume

39

First Page

787

Abstract

(Excerpt)

Imagine the following scenario: a group of immigrant women clean houses and offices in the suburbs of a large northeastern city. These workers speak languages other than English. Therefore they depend on an intermediary, another immigrant who has been in the United States for a longer period of time, to solicit jobs, negotiate schedules, and communicate with customers. Although this “intermediary” does not actually perform any of the cleaning work, the intermediary’s “cut,” or share of the income generated, is substantial. The immigrant workers are typically paid a low wage, often averaging below the minimum wage set by the Fair Labor Standards Act. The workers have neither health nor unemployment insurance. All their wages are paid in cash under the table and not reported to the tax system, so no social security benefits accrue to them. Although their immigration status is unknown, it is likely that some of the workers are in the United States as illegal aliens.

Is it possible for Critical Race Feminist theorists to assist workers who find themselves in the scenario described above? How might the law be deployed to help those who lack power, those who often find themselves on the bottom of the race, gender, class, and immigration status hierarchies? The traditional answer, unionizing and acting collectively to bargain with an employer, is ineffective in the context described above. There is no common employer the workers could bargain with for higher wages or better working conditions. Moreover, the fear of being deported makes undocumented workers reluctant to unionize.

This Article proposes one possible solution to this problem that might appeal to theorists and practitioners of outsider jurisprudence: employing the principles of business associations law, specifically the vehicle of the Limited Liability Company (LLC), to transform these workers into business owners. By using existing legal structures to their benefit, low-wage women workers can curtail a portion of the exploitation that they currently experience. Under an LLC structure, rather than the workers receiving their pay after an intermediary’s cut, the LLC receives the income, the intermediary receives a set salary, and the workers share the profits. By becoming members of an LLC, workers can also purchase group benefits, such as health insurance, and better control their working environments.

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Available at: https://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/archives/39/3/decentering-firm-limited-liability-company-and-low-wage-immigrant-women-workers