UCLA Center for the Study of Women

This policy brief examines the implications of food insecurity among female seasonal farmworkers and their children. Food insecurity disproportionally affects seasonal farmworkers and documentation status prevents many from applying for food assistance programs. This brief recommends faster paths to documentation for farmworkers and their children.

Across the United States, local laws and federal immigration policy combine to produce a situation where massage parlor workers, who are predominately female, are left unprotected, which can result in exploitation through a trifecta of wage theft, deportation threat, and sexual harassment. Failing to recognize the differences in the types of massage parlors and masseuses, the current broad-brush legislative approach to regulation is inadequate and does not properly address worker conditions. New legislation is needed to provide legal protection to masseuses.

Although the exact number of informal street vendors in Los Angeles is difficult to ascertain, the number appears to be growing, following the recent economic recession.While street vending is technically illegal, approximately 50,000 vendors may be seen throughout the city, selling goods ranging from bacon-wrapped hot dogs and pupusas, to clothing, flowers, and jewelry.