The high stakes of being a low-wage Tennessee worker | Opinion
There has long been a gap between low-income Tennesseans’ needs for civil legal services and the resources available to meet those needs. But for those with work-related legal issues, there’s an abyss.
Americans face over 260 million unique legal problems each year. But only about half of these issues receive adequate support due to a lack of available resources and information, particularly among low-income individuals.
The term “access to justice gap” refers to this disparity between low-income individuals’ civil legal needs—which can range from landlord-tenant disputes to domestic violence allegations–and the resources available to address those needs.
Though this gap exists for most civil legal problems plaguing low-income Tennesseans, it is even wider when those issues are work-related. But what makes the gap for work-related issues so uniquely deep?
The answer can be found in a 2021 report published by the Workers Advocacy Practicum of Vanderbilt Law School. The report surveys the needs of low-wage Tennessee workers and the legal resources available to them, relying on data shared by the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) and discussions with civil legal service providers across the state.
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Low-income workers face many difficult obstacles
Data from the report reveal the many hurdles a worker must clear in order to gain relief from legal issues. The first barrier a worker faces is identifying that her struggle could benefit from legal assistance. National data cited in the report suggests Americans may be particularly hesitant to classify work-related problems—like wrongful termination or difficulties securing unemployment benefits—as “legal” issues. This challenge is especially troubling given the surge of work-related issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even if a worker is able to identify her need for legal assistance, they are immediately confronted with another obstacle: overburdened and under-resourced legal service providers.
Programs designed to help low-income individuals with their civil legal issues, such as legal aid clinics, rely on and are often significantly constrained by public grants and private donations. As a result, as few as 20% of Tennesseans seeking assistance at one of these organizations are actually successful in getting help.
Assuming a worker is able to overcome all of these barriers, they may still be turned away due to the low income ceilings many legal aid programs must impose as a condition of their funding. And yet, low-wage workers with incomes high enough to bar them from participation in a legal aid program likely lack the resources needed to hire a private attorney.
The consequences of the access to just gap can be devastating for low wage workers. An unresolved employment problem often bleeds into other parts of a worker’s life; beyond a loss of income, an inability to work or receive benefits may deprive a worker of her sole source of health insurance. Considering the ongoing public health crisis facing Americans, such a loss may be catastrophic.
Importantly, the disruptions caused by the access to justice gap for low-wage workers are not equally felt. New national data from a report published by the University of Denver and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System shows that Black and Hispanic Americans, women, and younger people are more likely to identify work-related problems as their most serious legal issue than other groups. Immigrant workers are also uniquely vulnerable to workplace abuse. As a result, these socio-demographic groups disproportionately suffer the consequences of the access to justice gap.
Prior to the report by the Workers Advocacy Practicum of Vanderbilt Law School, little was known about the difficulties low-wage Tennessee workers face in getting help with their legal problems. Even as a law student in Tennessee with an interest in access to justice issues, I had remained unaware of the unique legal landscape for low-wage Tennessee workers until I participated in the Practicum.
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But this new awareness urges a new responsibility for lawyers and non-lawyers alike: to continue the conversation about the troubling resource disparity harming low-wage workers in our state and center the voices of those who are most affected. By making stakeholders—including the Tennessee legislature, donors, and civil legal service providers—aware of and engaged with issues facing many of our state’s employees, we can begin to bridge the gap between these workers’ needs and the legal help they deserve.
Emily Burgess is a third-year law student at Vanderbilt Law School who has served as President of Vanderbilt’s Legal Aid Society. In fall 2021, she was part of the law school’s Worker Advocacy Practicum. Practicum students and faculty researched and wrote Law at Work in the Volunteer State.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Wage gap disparities lay heavy on Tennessee workers
