BossFeed Briefing for December 21, 2020. Last Monday, the group Seattle Restaurants United said the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s lawsuit to overturn the Jumpstart tax on big businesses is “wrongheaded, harmful, and frankly infuriating.” Last Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that 1 in 9 people in the US lives below the federal poverty line, a rise of 8 million people since August. Last Thursday, Governor Inslee released his proposed budget, which includes a tax on profits from the sale of stocks, bonds, and other capital gains over $25,000. Tomorrow, the days start getting longer. And Friday is one week before the WA state minimum wage rises to $13.69/hr.
Three things to know this week:
Dozens of restaurant workers across WA have signed an open letter calling on state leaders to put workers’ safety first by keeping indoor dining closed, fixing unemployment, and providing cash relief to workers. The letter also has a message for customers: order takeout instead of dining in-person, mask up even when not required by law, and urge Gov. Inslee to address the crisis in our unemployment system.
More than 700 people imprisoned at the Airway Heights Corrections Center outside Spokane have contracted COVID, and ongoing factory work inside the prison is driving the outbreak. People who make food at the prison factory are paid between 90 cents and $1.70/hr.
Fast food workers in NYC last week won new protections prohibiting companies from firing employees without just cause. Under the new city law, fast food chains must provide an adequate reason before taking away someone’s livelihood.
Two things to ask:
Care to share with the class? Forbes Magazine reports luxury brands are leaving 2020 with “a wealth of COVID lessons learned." One of the standout lessons: luxury brands apparently spent the year becoming increasingly worried about their reputation for dealing in the business of inequality.
Anyone else remember how Jeff Bezos originally wanted to name his company “Relentless”? A new report in Bloomberg details the ways Amazon is driving down pay across the whole warehouse industry. For example, in one New Jersey town, the average wage for warehouse workers five years ago was $24/hr; then Amazon opened up a distribution warehouse, and average wages fell to $17.50.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
A new report in Crosscut highlights the ongoing crisis in our state’s unemployment system, despite the Employment Security Department’s claim that they’ve resolved their issues. The agency announced in August it completed "Operation 100%" and addressed its backlog, but by the agency's own figures, 27,000 people are currently waiting for their cases to get resolved. Reporters have been able to help a handful of these workers get paid—and we’re thankful to journalists for continually drawing attention to the system failure at ESD—but tens of thousands of people don’t have their cases profiled by major Seattle news outlets, and nobody should have to rely on making headlines to access the benefits they’re owed. Imagine an unemployment system that just...did its job and paid benefits to people who lost work, without hours of being on hold, 10 week average wait times for payment, and various other glitches and confusion.
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!