BossFeed Briefing for February 15, 2022. Last Friday, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell decided to let the City’s eviction moratorium expire at the end of February. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Tomorrow at 1pm, a delegation of gig workers will deliver a giant 6-foot-tall bag to Seattle City Hall, urging Council to deliver an end to subminimum wages (tune in to the livestream here.) This Saturday is Japanese Internment Day of Remembrance. This Monday is the 57th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X.
Three things to know this week:
Gig workers leading our Pay Up campaign gave public comment before Seattle City Council, urging City leaders to eliminate subminimum wages in the gig economy. Local news media—from MyNorthwest, to KING 5, to KOMO 4—took notice.
Dave Clark, the CEO of Amazon’s retail wing, sold his Medina home for $14.5 million. It’s not clear exactly how many bathrooms are in the 8,500-square-foot mansion, but it seems unlikely that Clark was peeing in bottles.
1 in 4 temp workers experience wage theft, according to a new survey of 1,337 workers. 71% of temp workers also reported experiencing retaliation for raising workplace concerns with their supervisor.
Two things to ask:
Remember when the weirdest thing about McDonald’s was Grimace? McDonald’s announced plans to open a virtual restaurant in the Metaverse. The chain will offer “virtual food and beverage products” to on-the-go Metaverse users in the market for a make-believe midnight snack.
Does the punishment fit the crime? WA state investigators fined three companies—including United Natural Foods, a major supplier of organic foods—for serious COVID safety violations at a Centralia warehouse. Despite health & safety violations ranging from allowing COVID-positive workers into the workplace, failing to notify staff of COVID exposure, and failing to enforce mask mandates, the total combined fines were just $285,000.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
Some members of Congress want to shrink the Child Tax Credit, a monthly cash payment for most American families with children, and target the program to poor people—but making the program less universal will actually restrict benefits for the poorest families, writes Jim Pugh for In These Times. Pugh argues that when eligibility rules for benefits programs are more restrictive, fewer eligible people are successfully able to enroll: for instance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the main anti-poverty cash assistance program in the U.S. (and a heavily means-tested program), only reaches 25% of eligible families. Eligible people might not ever find out the program exists, they might know it exists but not know how to navigate the difficult enrollment process, and in the case of many people of color, might face barriers and hoops constructed in the era of racist tropes such as the Welfare Queen. Enrollment rates for universal programs, meanwhile, often exceed 90%, reaching far more of the people who need the benefits most, all while ensuring everyone is better off.
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!