Why don’t people leave bad jobs?

WHENEVER I do investigative reporting about companies that treat workers badly, there is usually someone who asks, “Why don’t they just leave, then? No one is forcing them to work there, are they?” Unsympathetic, perhaps, but it’s actually a good question to ask. The answer can reveal a lot about the way an economy does (and doesn’t) work.

Sometimes the reasons are obvious. The workers might be in the country illegally, have incurred debts to recruiters they must repay, or are tied to their employer by the terms of their visa. Then there is the macroeconomy: when unemployment is high, people don’t necessarily have better options.

At other times, though, the question is harder to answer. Take the UK, where unemployment has (until a recent turn in the data) been at its lowest for almost 50 years. In spite of that, a report by the Low Pay Commission (LPC) – the independent body set up to advise the government on minimum wage rates – suggests illegal underpayment of workers has persisted.