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Abstract

This paper argues utilizing certification marks in the fight against wage theft is a powerful consumer-side approach to the wage theft crisis, building public attention, fostering a social norm against wage theft, bolstering current approaches to the crisis, and spurring meaningful political action. Current approaches to the wage theft cri-sis are floundering, and certification marks, a subset of trademarks “used to show . . . goods and[] services . . . meet certain standards,” offer a unique approach to the problem. By highlighting certification marks’ unique attributes, showcasing other labor movements’ suc-cessful adaptation of certification marks, and utilizing a hypothetical certification mark within the wage theft context, this paper seeks to expose certification marks’ untapped potential as tools in the fight against wage theft and serves to urge those involved in the fight to take advantage of that potential.

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