ABSTRACT
The chapter describes the main differences between US and Italian institutional settings in terms of labor relations and contracts, industrial relations, minimum wage regulation, and non-wage benefits financed by the state or employers that contribute to the workers’ living standards. The divergence between the two national contexts is well known, but the focus on retail (and, more precisely, on mass fashion) and the reference to the interviews show how the laws are implemented in reality, what strategies are adopted by employers to circumvent or apply rules, how the unionization process works, what the unions’ role is, and what the real working conditions are within stores. The final section of the chapter aims at highlighting how the case of mass fashion can offer a privileged observation point of institutions’ role, making particularly apparent some differences between the two institutional settings and, at the same time, blurring some others.
