to the worker’s claims, we collect very detailed data that allow us to construct three variables: the actual amount of money claimed by the worker, an imputed claim assuming the dismissal was unjusti...ed but based only on statements that we believe are easily veri...able, and an imputed claim of what the law would assign to this worker given justi...ed ...ring, again based on statements that we believe are easily veri...able.

In order to calculate our imputed claims we assume that the worker is accurately reporting certain “easily veri...able”features of the case such as the wage and the dates when the worker was employed. We ignore certain other claims such as having worked an extraordinary amount of overtime or never having received constitutionally-mandated bene...ts despite the fact that the worker could have demanded these bene...ts prior to the current lawsuit.

For the employer we have a ...rm identi...er, the location of the business, and the industry. In lawsuits to which the employer provides an answer, we also have the employer’s version of the facts cited by the worker in her claim, such as the worker’s job description, salary, and so on. Additionally we code other evidence submitted by the ...rm to establish that the worker was never hired or ...red, was ...red with some justi...cation,<sup>38</sup> has received fringe bene...ts payment, or has already accepted a severance package from the ...rm.

In terms of the procedures’ outcomes, as explained before, a substantial proportion of the procedures ...led arrive to the tribunals as a settlement, and are always rati...ed by the courts as such. For lawsuits, we observe three types of conclusions: dropped suits, settlements, and trials leading to a judgment by the court. We record the date of conclusion of the procedure, the payment received by the worker, and any previous payments recognized by the court. For trials, we observe a trial result stated by the court,<sup>39</sup> the votes of the judge and the representatives of labor and management in favor of or against the judgment,<sup>40</sup> the facts of the case as recognized by the judge, the number of constitutional appeals ...led,<sup>41</sup> and the number of judgments made by the court.

the present paper we have only used the social security data to verify wages reported in the lawsuits and to follow up on dropped cases.

> 38 In cases where the ...rm alleges having ...red the worker justi...ably, it provides evidence of one of the causes for justi...ed ...ring described in the law.

> 39 The court states whether its decision is in favor of the worker’s claim, the employer, or mixed, in the sense that the judge concedes only part of the claim.

> 40 As explained in the previous section, in order for a ...nal judgment to be valid, at least one of the representatives of the parties must ‘vote’in favor of it, so that along with the court’s vote they constitute a majority. We rarely ...nd both representatives voting in favor of the judge’s resolution.

> 41 In cases that proceed to a trial, it is common for one or both parties to ...le constitutional appeals, generally claiming violations of due process. For each successful appeal ...led, the court must issue a new judgment, so that in some cases we observe several decisions by the court.

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