About the Equal Justice Center
25 Years of Equal Justice for low-income workers in Texas.
The Equal Justice Center is a non-profit public interest law firm that specializes in the rights of low-wage workers. The EJC was founded in 2001 and since then EJC has stood beside low-wage workers, immigrants, and families across Texas and beyond, providing expert legal representation and fighting for a more just workplace for all.
Our Mission
Empowering low-income families, workers, and communities to achieve fair treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in our shared society.
The Equal Justice Center was founded on a simple premise: that every worker deserves dignity, and access to justice should not be a privilege reserved for those who can afford it. From construction sites to restaurant kitchens, domestic households to agricultural fields, we show up for the people who keep Texas running and who are too often left behind.
Service Area: EJC has offices in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio and provides legal help and advocacy throughout the State of Texas. The EJC fights to ensure that all workers can enforce their basic rights in the workplace, and works to empower working families in Texas to achieve fair treatment in the justice system.
Employment Justice: The EJC provides direct legal representation to individuals to enforce their rights in the workplace. Through our legal assistance, we show workers how they can access the justice system and enforce their basic employment rights at work, regardless of their immigration status. The EJC has helped low-income working people recover over $20 million dollars in unpaid wages. Our employment law representation helps workers who have not been paid at all for their work; workers who have not been paid the legal minimum wage, overtime wages, or prevailing wage rates; low-wage workers who have experienced workplace discrimination, including sexual harassment; and working people who have suffered retaliation for speaking up about their wages or working conditions.
Worker's Rights Education: We work closely with our clients, so that they will learn how to be strong advocates for their own workplace rights, how to use the legal system more effectively, how to advocate collectively with other workers and organizations, and how to teach these skills to others.
We conduct employment rights education programs that empower low-income working people with knowledge about their rights and how to enforce those rights safely and effectively.
Employment Rights Clinic: University of Texas Law School students enrolled in the Employment Rights Clinic work out of the Equal Justice Center: helping workers enforce their basic rights; gaining legal practice skills; and studying and influencing the emerging field of transnational labor rights. Clinic students serve as lead counsel prosecuting civil employment law cases to recover unpaid wages for low-income clients. Students gain hands-on legal experience applying employment laws, navigating civil litigation procedures, and adapting those laws and procedures to better protect vulnerable workers in our rapidly growing transnational workforce.
