BossFeed Briefing for October 18, 2021. The Friday before last, a beluga whale was spotted swimming in the Puget Sound, the first such sighting in 81 years. Last Monday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Today marks six weeks since 120,000 unemployed workers in WA saw their unemployment benefits go to zero. This Thursday is Latina Equal Pay Day. This Sunday is the 81st anniversary of the 40-hour work week taking effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Three things to know this week:
Total Wine is paying $333,019.57 to 101 Seattle workers for failing to comply with the city’s grocery worker hazard pay ordinance. The company stated they “voluntarily agreed” to settle the case.
Some companies will soon require employees to find childcare while they work from home. One new rule would ban children from being seen on office Zoom calls during the workday.
People who work for companies that deliver for Amazon report that Amazon constantly tracks their every move on video and looks for ways to penalize them. For instance, “distracted driving” alerts are common, and can be triggered by something as benign as a driver’s phone shaking when the van travels over rough terrain.
Two things to ask:
Can you spot the difference? A federal business relief program gave out immediate $10,000 grants to small businesses during the pandemic, with few questions asked and with little up-front verification of claims. Meanwhile, unemployed workers across the country have waited months for benefits and have had claims denied for issues as minor as misspelling a word in their application.
Have you heard about the Pandora Papers yet? The set of leaked documents reveals how the ultra-rich hide their wealth in tax havens around the world — and within the United States. Five US states host an especially high number of secretive trusts and shell companies: South Dakota, Florida, Delaware, Texas, and Nevada.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
In a piece for The Guardian, Sarah Jaffe makes the case for why we should all work less. The idea of moving to a shorter workweek (without loss of pay!) is becoming more and more popular: growing numbers of workers in Iceland work a shorter week, Spain is currently running a pilot program, and Rep. Mark Takano recently introduced a bill in the US House to establish a four-day workweek. In addition to the basic goal of ensuring adequate rest and more time to live your life, some economists believe that a shorter workweek could help alleviate periods of high unemployment by spreading out available work more widely, especially during times of economic crisis. It could help tackle the climate crisis, too, because more people with more time means fewer people commuting and less demand for energy-intensive ready-made meals and convenience items.
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!