BossFeed Briefing for January 18 , 2021. Last Monday, a survey found that one-quarter of King County residents have struggled to pay for basic necessities during the pandemic. Last Tuesday, two adult gorillas at the San Diego Zoo tested positive for COVID, reportedly contracting the virus from an asymptomatic zookeeper. Last Wednesday, nine out of ten WA House members voted to impeach President Trump for inciting the Capitol riot. Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—and the Seattle MLK Coalition has put together info on the day’s marches, workshops, and more. This Thursday is the 75th anniversary of 750,000 U.S. steelworkers walking off the job in 1946.
Three things to know this week:
At a legislative hearing last week, unemployed leaders with Working Washington spoke out about the changes workers need to see in our state’s unemployment system. Workers are calling on the legislature to do more to support workers in need and ensure the unemployment system pays benefits promptly.
The unemployment rate for the poorest workers in the country remains above 20%, according to the latest estimate from Federal Reserve officials. Overall, the national unemployment rate is 6.7%.
Applications are now open for Seattle’s $2 million hospitality worker relief fund, matching the $2 million allocated by the city for business relief. Workers must live in Seattle to receive support from the fund, while business owners do not have to establish Seattle residency to receive assistance.
Two things to ask:
Do you think he’s tried “Pa55w0rd” yet? A San Francisco man has just two password attempts left to unlock his encrypted Bitcoin account holding more than $300 million of the cyber currency. Elite hackers around the world are offering their support—but support comes at a cost, with one expert saying he’d charge a 10% commission to unlock the dough.
Who else would tax that? According to a new study from real-estate company Zillow, the greater-Seattle area has a whole lot of “$1 million cities”—cities with a median home price of at least $1 million. Hunts Point, just outside Bellevue, had the 2nd-highest median home price in the United States at $6 million.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
Black custodial staff at the US Capitol are speaking out about what it felt like to clean up the mess left behind by violent pro-Trump white supremacists. After the siege ended and the building was secured, it was the predominantly Black and brown custodial workers—including some workers who were inside the building at the time of the attack—who were tasked with cleaning up the widespread destruction. One Black worker told Business Insider that “it was degrading” to clean up after white nationalists who posed a threat to their lives; many other workers of color echoed this sentiment, adding that they no longer felt safe in their workplace. There are thousands of people who work in building maintenance and custodial jobs at the Capitol, but most journalists seem to forget that non-politicians were present that day—by our count, this is the literal only article we’ve found where a reporter has asked low-wage workers about their experiences of the attack.
Read this far?
Consider yourself briefed, boss.
Let us know what you think about this week's look at the world of work, wages, and inequality!