BossFeed Briefing for November 2, 2022. Last Thursday, Elon Musk officially took ownership of Twitter and immediately fired the company’s CEO. Last Monday was Halloween, the only day of the year when it’s acceptable for roving bands of small children to extort payment from neighbors. Yesterday marked the start of Día de los Muertos. Next Tuesday is Election Day—your ballot must be postmarked or put in a dropbox by 8pm. This Saturday, Raise the Wage Tukwila will host a get-out-the-vote canvass, starting 11 am at the Sullivan Center.
Three things to know this week:
Exxon hauled in $19.7 billion in third quarter profits, and Shell made $9.5 billion in the same period. President Biden suggested raising taxes on oil companies if they don’t lower gas prices.
A subsidiary of carmaker Hyundai employed children as young as 12 at a metal stamping plant in Alabama. Hyundai’s “human rights policy” forbids child labor, as do multiple federal and state laws.
Saudi Arabia has started construction on “The Line”, a 105-mile-long city of skyscrapers in the middle of the desert. The project is expected to cost one trillion dollars.
Two things to ask:
They know how to make ice, right? Ice baths are surging in popularity—and some people are shelling out as much as $4,990 for cold plunge tubs. One company offers a deluxe “Malibu 56” model for $26,999, which offers owners the ability to…make water really cold.
How does this keep happening? The Yakima Herald featured a bunch of restaurant owners speculating at length about their hiring woes and the impacts of inflation. The article failed to include the perspective of even one restaurant worker.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
The City of Seattle’s official COVID state of emergency was lifted yesterday, which for 40,000 food gig delivery workers in Seattle means an immediate end to $2.50/order hazard pay and an eventual end to paid sick leave protections. Back in May, gig workers won landmark permanent PayUp protections to raise pay, protect flexibility, and provide transparency, but those protections don’t begin until 2024, leaving a yearlong gap during which workers will continue to make subminimum wages as low as $2/job. For DoorDash driver Carmen Figueroa, the loss of hazard pay amounts to a 50% pay cut: “I was finally getting to a point financially where I was not completely drowning…but [now] I'm going to start drowning again.” Gig companies made dire threats about their ability to continue operating in Seattle if hazard pay passed, but since then, they’ve been paying workers the required amount and expanding their business—so there’s no reason to believe they can't raise their base pay to prevent pay cuts.
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!