BossFeed Briefing for March 18, 2019. Last Monday, the Washington State House overwhelmingly passed a bill to eliminate the subminimum wage for people with disabilities. Last Wednesday, DoorDash’s CEO sent an email to drivers saying the company would be holding “roundtables” about their widely-criticized tip-taking pay model. Last Friday marked a year since domestic workers built a display of thousands of diapers at Seattle City Hall to show how many nannies and gardeners are working in our region. Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. And this Friday is the second-to-last weekday of National Celery Month.
Three things to know this week:
Silicon Valley investor Bill McGlashan has been a leading voice in favor of ethical investments in the tech industry. He is now being charged with fraud in the college admissions bribery scandal.
A new food truck in Seattle is selling Oaxaca-style roasted corn, with the help of a machine leaning algorithm. The owner says he is able to use data he gathers from the Seattle Department of Transportation and social media to predict demand with 97% accuracy.
Most strip clubs in Washington are owned by the Deja Vu chain. If a dancer has problems at one club, it can be tough to get work anywhere else in the state.
Two things to ask:
How did the talk with the legal department go? The site editor at online food publication Epicurious (owned by Condé Nast) posted a job for a “full-time freelance position” including a detailed job description, a 40-hour weekly time commitment, and no benefits. After about 48 hours of blowback, the editor “clarified” the status of this particular position.
What if they get trapped in an infinite loop? The federal Department of Labor reportedly intends to subcontract some of the work required to update the “joint employer” rule. That updated rule could affect whether or not the DOL is a joint employer of the subcontractors updating the rule.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
Four days after Jordan Brown’s rent was due, it was officially late, and so his landlord quickly launched an eviction process which left him just three days to find the money or face eviction — a disturbing process described with unflinching respect and dignity by Kate Walters of KUOW. Brown in fact had the money in the form of a paycheck which was being mailed to him, but was held up in the mail by the February snowstorms until it was too late. So in less than a month, Brown went from having stable housing to having nowhere to go — all because of unseasonable weather, a late paycheck, unbendingly harsh laws, and extremely aggressive landlords. The photographs in the piece are alone worth a closer look — a human take on wrestling with an eviction notice that’s both all too common a experience to live, and all too uncommon an experience to witness in the media.
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!