Thirty-eight million Americans live below the poverty line. Millions more are one missed paycheck away from crisis.

Labor trafficking is not only a human rights violation, it is an economic one. It runs like a market: supply, demand, profit margins, reinvestment. The difference is that its workers are owned rather than paid. And that single distinction quietly hollows out the global economy from the inside. Picture two economies running side by side. The first one is visible: wage laws, tax filings, labor inspections, quarterly reports. The second operates in its shadow, impersonating it well enough to...