Know Your Rights: Immigrant Workers’ Rights

Immigrant workers are protected by the same laws as other workers in the United States. This is true even if you are undocumented.

Your rights include:

• Minimum Wage – You have the right to be paid the minimum wage for every hour you work. (There are a few exceptions. For example, workers on very small farms can make less than the minimum wage.)
• Overtime Pay – You have the right to overtime pay when you work more than 40 hours in a week (except for farmworkers and a few others).
• Health and Safety – You have the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
• Workers’ Compensation Benefits – You have the right to workers’ compensation benefits if you are hurt at work (with a few exceptions).
• Unions – You have the right to join a union and to join with other workers to ask for changes in your workplace.
• Discrimination protections – You have the right not to be discriminated against because of your race, color, sex, age, disability, religion, national origin, or citizenship status.
• Retaliation protections – You have the right to demand your rights without facing retaliation.

What are my rights when I apply for work?
Some employers use a computer system called E‐Verify to check documents. They should check your documents only after they have offered you a job.

If your employer says your documents are not good, and this is wrong, tell him you want to appeal. He will give you a paper to sign. You have 8 business days to start to fix the problem by talking to the Social Security office or another office. While you are trying to fix the problem, your employer cannot fire you or take other action against you.