BossFeed Briefing for August 31, 2022. The Tuesday before last, President Biden announced $10-$20K in student loan forgiveness for federal borrowers. Last Wednesday marked 100 years since the birth of radical historian Howard Zinn. Last Thursday, Kent teachers walked out on strike over salaries, class size, and mental health care in schools. This Sunday is the first day of Muharram, the start to the New Year in the Islamic calendar. This Monday is Labor Day.
Three things to know this week:
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has proposed a wealth tax on personal savings and property above $630,000. The tax would generate an estimated $11 billion per year to fund anti-poverty programs and free public college.
Zeeks Pizza is paying $410K to 224 delivery drivers as part of a wage theft settlement. Commenting on the second such settlement in 3 years, the company says it “stands with our drivers.”
An AI startup is building voice-altering technology that erases call center workers’ accents, aimed at making them sound more like “Westerners”. According to the company, the new technology is all about “empowering individuals, advancing equality, and deepening empathy.”
Two things to ask:
Maybe they’re looking in the wrong place? U.S. corporate profits surged 15.5% in the second quarter, the most since 1950. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve officials are concerned that higher wages for workers are driving inflation.
Are you ready for the summer’s hottest release? The National Labor Relations Board found that Starbucks illegally denied unionized employees wage and benefit increases. The ruling orders Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz to record a video explaining the illegal action and describing workers’ rights under federal law.
And one thing that's worth a closer look:
At least 18 million workers at major corporations are subject to draconian point-based attendance systems, which track their time down to the minute and enact harsh penalties for unexpected emergencies, reports Bryce Covert for New York Magazine. The automated point systems—used by companies like Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, Kroger, and Tyson—give workers a fraction of a point for being late or leaving early, and a full point for missing a full shift. One Walmart worker tells Covert she was fired for accumulating just 3 points after missing work because she was experiencing dangerous bleeding episodes; and a worker at a food-packaging warehouse in Pennsylvania says he received a point for taking his pregnant wife to the ER. Fourteen states—including Washington—guarantee paid sick leave for workers, but there’s an urgent need to expand those protections nationwide—and to ensure people know how to assert those rights, especially as companies push to remove basic humanity from the workplace.
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!