Day laborers can be found throughout Illinois and Indiana, hired for jobs on residential or commercial construction sites, as well as in our warehouses; agricultural enterprises (farms, etc.); and as landscapers or movers. They work for the day; the week; or for a season, doing all sorts of tasks with pay by the day or by the hour.
Sometimes they are hired via staffing agencies (e.g., Minutemen Staffing in Indianapolis) or found through online hiring web sites (like Chicago day laborer job openings posted at Indeed.com). Often, employers find these workers as direct hires. For more, read the 2024 Reddit discussion of day laborers ready for work outside a local Chicagoland Home Depot.
In our part of the country, day laborers are hired to work in some of our biggest industries, where the risk of being hurt or killed on the job can be very high. These local industries include construction; warehousing and distribution / logistics; landscaping; farming/agri-business; manufacturing; alongside moving companies and maintenance companies contracting to various worksites.
The risk for these workers is high, not only because they are going to work in places that are new to them with unknown risks and hazards, but because so often they are hired in a somewhat informal manner. Day laborers face a great risk of being hurt in a severe work accident for several reasons, and this is often coupled with an increased need to fight for things like workers’ compensation benefits as well as damages due to them by those third parties who have legal liability for their harm.
For more, read: Garcia Rivas, Javier, and Bongkyoo Choi. “Work-Related Injury and Healthcare Access Among Day Laborers. Struggling at the Esquina.” NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy 34.4 (2025): 296-305 and Kearney, Gregory D., and Satomi Imai. “Occupational fatalities among grounds maintenance workers in the United States (2016− 2020).” American Journal of industrial medicine 66.9 (2023): 750-758.
Who is a “Day Laborer” in Illinois or Indiana?
Under both state and federal law, a “day laborer” is someone who is hired to do work for that day, or on a very short-term basis. The work itself may be manual labor, requiring little in skill, education, or experience. It may be work that does need some savvy, like working with power tools; trimming tree limbs from a height; knowing how to measure and calculate dimensions; and being able to follow rules and instructions on the specific worksite.
Other names or job titles for these workers include:
- Construction Helper
- Hired Hand
- Itinerant Worker
- Laborer (“Casual laborer,” “General laborer,” “Unskilled laborer”)
- Roustabout
- Temporary Worker (“Temp”)
- Warehouse Associate.
Temporary Work Means Greater Danger of Being Hurt on the Job
Day laborers in Illinois or Indiana, no matter the industry, face a higher risk of being injured, sometimes seriously or even fatally, in a work accident. This is not only because they may have been given little if any training before starting on a task, though this alone is a big concern. Day laborers usually do not get the same level of supervision as employees on a long-term payroll plan. They probably are not being provided with the same quality of personal protective equipment (“PPE”), either. Day laborers may not be given any PPE at all. These workers may not get much in the way of hiring protections either: someone may be thrust into a job they have no business taking on, and the danger of bodily injury in this scenario skyrockets.
Consider the following factors that amplify the risks of a day laborer being hurt in a work accident, regardless of legal duties of safety and care that exist to protect them from harm:
1. Training and Site Orientation: workers should be provided with a tour of their work site alongside safety training and hazard warnings before they start work for the day. This is particularly important on job sites where there is a risk of electrocution; falling from a height; or being struck-by or caught-in-between heavy machinery or equipment.
2. Personal Protective Equipment: There are specific industrial regulations as well as safety standards for all kinds of work equipment and clothing to be worn by workers on the job. It does not matter if they are working for the day, for the week, or for the long-term. PPE is vital for safety, especially for workers exposed to things like chemical hazards (like silica on a construction site) or fall protection harnesses on a construction project.
3. Supervision on the Site: Workers need to be monitored, especially day laborers who are new to the place. In high-risk situations like demolition or trench work, they need to be supervised carefully and instructed as needed to work with minimal risk in dangerous tasks.
4. Communication Vulnerability: The day laborer may speak little English, and may not read English at all. Warning labels or warning signs may mean nothing to this worker, and the responsibility of the supervisor increases accordingly. These workers also need to be watched to make sure that if they are hurt, they are helped in a reasonable and prudent manner because the day laborer may be wary of reporting an accident for fear of job loss, etc.
Day Laborer Work Accidents in Illinois or Indiana
Many workers on our job sites are employed as day laborers. They risk the same catastrophic injuries as others on the job in dangerous work environments here, like our notoriously hazardous construction sites; hectic warehouses; farming operations; and factory floors.
Sadly, these workers face not only a greater risk of being hurt, but often they also have to deal with legal battles concerning workers’ compensation benefits and civil damage claims compensating them for their injuries.
In our next article, these battlefronts will be discussed in more detail. Day laborers may have rights for coverage under the workers’ compensation systems established in both Illinois and Indiana. And day laborers, after an independent investigation into the work accident, may have legal causes of action against one or more third parties (companies, individuals) for what they have suffered.
For more, read:
- The 2025 OSHA Top Ten List of Most Frequently Cited Workplace Safety Standards: Warning to Workers
- Common & Severe Work Related Injuries: How Do Attorneys Protect Workers?
- Warning to Chicago Workers: Safety Regulations and OSHA Violations
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents
- Are There Civil Claims for Damages Against Third-Parties for Your Work Accident?
Day laborers in Illinois and Indiana perform vital work and many employers depend upon them to be ready to help in peak times or seasonal needs (like holiday sorting and packing in fulfillment centers, or harvest time in agricultural operations). They face great dangers of being hurt on the job with big hurdles on obtaining financial help in the aftermath. Please be careful out there!
