Terri Gerstein
Think, NBC News

Laws requiring disclosure of salary ranges in job postings, like other pay transparency laws, reduce gender and race disparities.

Laws requiring disclosure of salary ranges in job postings, like other pay transparency laws, reduce gender and race disparities. Women still earn far less than men — 83 cents to the dollar in 2022 — and this gap is even worse for women of color: Black women made 58 cents on average, and Latina women 49 cents, for every dollar a non-Latino white man earned last year. Research has found that women are...

Terri Gerstein
Working Economics Blog
Economics Policy Institute

A snapshot of state and local enforcement actions across the country

Recent cases brought by state and local enforcers include the recovery of $130,000 for New York City building superintendents, who were paid no wages at all, and a recovery of nearly $220,000 for workers in a Seattle specialty bar and grocery store based on minimum wage and paid sick leave violations. In addition, prosecutors on both sides of the country took action against contractors in the construction...

Terri Gerstein
Working Economics Blog
Economics Policy Institute

A snapshot of state and local enforcement actions across the country

Recent cases brought by state and local enforcers include the recovery of $2 million for workers of a Seattle Domino’s franchisee that underpaid workers and didn’t give required notice of schedules; citation of Massachusetts Family Dollar stores for $1.5 million for thousands of meal break violations; and prosecution of several cases involving egregious violations of wage payment, unemployment insurance, and workers’...

Jamie Goldberg
The Oregonian/OregonLive

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office could begin bringing criminal charges against employers who repeatedly or intentionally deprive workers of pay as early as this summer under a new agreement with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

ByMack DeGeurin
Gizmodo

New Amazon documents filed with the U.S. The Department of Labor suggests the company engaged consultants for a rate of up to $20,000 per week in an aggressive effort to persuade workers to abandon unionization efforts. The documents were first spotted by Insider on Tuesday, and were ...

By Terri Gerstein
Think 
NBC News

Offering some options where masks are mandated would help enable continued accessibility of travel to everyone. People with health conditions and disabilities shouldn’t de facto be shut out of travel or forced to risk their health to conduct their daily lives. 

LUIS FELIZ LEON
LA Progressive

Amazon paid millions last year to union-busters whose job is psyops: lying and distorting facts to prevent workers from forming unions. For more, read here!

One of the consultant firms “advertises that it offers ‘a team of men...

BY LUIS FELIZ LEON
Jacobin

In a massive victory, Amazon workers recently won a union at a warehouse in New York. So now the company is trying every trick in the union-busting playbook to throttle worker organizing at a second facility.

One of the consultant firms advertises that it offers “a team of men and women who represent bi-lingual, ethnic and cultural diversity” that will “meet with the individual employees, establishing both rapport and credibility,” and notes that its services will help address situations in which the company’s management and...

By Terri Gerstein
The American Prospect

There are gaping holes in what the law requires employers to reveal about their campaigns to keep their workers from unionizing.

Instead of hemorrhaging money hiring anti-union consultants to mimic their workforce’s demographics while spewing tired anti-union tropes, companies could figure out how to work effectively with unions. They could recognize that poor treatment of workers is unsustainable and accept that the tide is turning. They might well discover that a unionized workforce ...

By Camille Squires
Quartz

On March 31, Washington became the first state in the US to guarantee rideshare drivers receive a minimum wage. But, crucially for the rideshare companies, workers will remain classified as independent contractors, not employees. Uber and Lyft insist that this independent contractor status is what gives rideshare drivers the flexibility they seek in the job, but it also frees the companies from other responsibilities of employers, like providing overtime pay and health insurance.

...

By Noam Scheiber and Kellen Browning
New York Times

Lawmakers have passed legislation granting benefits and protections, but allowing Lyft and Uber to continue to treat drivers as contractors.

Worker advocates worried that other states would try to replicate the legislation. “I hope Governor Inslee seeks additional analysis of its potential impact,” said Terri Gerstein, a workers rights lawyer at Harvard...

David Kroman
The Seattle Times

Now, a year after Seattle's minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers took effect, state legislators are considering a similar floor of pay and benefits for drivers statewide. The bill, House Bill 2076, has already cleared the House and a key committee in the Senate.

If passed, drivers would gain a guaranteed minimum per ride that would increase at the same pace as the state's minimum wage, which is currently $14.49. They would also begin accruing paid sick time, become eligible for workers compensation, and gain access to an appeals...

BY TERRI GERSTEIN
The American Prospect

When Proposition 22, the (sadly, successful) initiative to strip gig workers of rights, was on the California ballot in 2020, there was immense news coverage and analysis. As gig companies like Uber and Lyft prepare similar attempts across the country, with the goal of ensuring their workers remain non-employees, a similarly high-profile fight is brewing in Massachusetts, where worker, environmental, and racial justice advocates have formed a coalition to gear up for a major battle as a similar measure comes before voters in November...

By Hassan Kanu
Justice Matters
Reuters

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Feb. 10 enacted one of the most momentous workplace rights reforms in more than a decade, and Congress’ most significant legislation against sexual harassment and abuse since the #MeToo women’s movement began five years ago.

The U.S. Senate approved a bill to ban companies from making employees sign away their rights to file a lawsuit over sexual assault or harassment, and to force them to take their claims to confidential arbitration instead. The House of Representatives had passed its version of the bill earlier.

Terri Gerstein, a fellow at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program, told me the legislation is an “important first step,” and a major accomplishment, especially given the stark partisan divide in Congress and businesses’ strong interest in keeping disputes out of court.

“I would not understate what a real accomplishment this is, and how meaningful it is to women who have faced harassment and assault,” Gerstein said. “It demonstrates a bipartisan recognition that forced arbitration is unfair to workers and that the secrecy is a problem.”

But Gerstein said she also wouldn't understate the importance of ending forced arbitration in wage, race discrimination and other types of workplace disputes.... Read more about After five years of #MeToo movement, a modest win for women's workplace rights

by Terri Gerstein
Working Economics Blog
Economic Policy Institute

Recent cases brought by state and local enforcers include the recovery of $2 million for workers of a Seattle Domino’s franchisee that underpaid workers and didn’t give required notice of schedules; citation of Massachusetts Family Dollar stores for $1.5 million for thousands of meal break violations; and prosecution of several cases involving egregious violations of wage payment, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation laws.