#precarious work

Steward, S, & Gibson, D. K. (2022, April 21). When climate change meets a bad work environment, disaster can strike. Aspen Institute. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/when-climate-change-meets-a-bad-work-environment-disaster-can-strike/

Shelly Steward and David K. Gibson write: “Dire predictions about this summer’s weather are already arriving. … These worsening conditions are especially hard for farmworkers, delivery workers, sanitation workers, construction workers, and those who work outdoors and in facilities that do not offer protection from the elements. Nearly one-fifth of workers spend considerable time outside, with more than four percent constantly working outdoors. These people face two of the greatest challenges of this century: the harsh realities of climate change combined with steadily worsening job conditions.”

“Last summer, record-breaking heat in the Pacific Northwest led to the deaths of several workers, including a farmworker, a construction worker, and a warehouse worker. … These fatalities—at the intersection of rapidly advancing climate change and steadily eroding workplace protections—are fueled by short-term perspectives and the prioritization of profits at the expense of people. They are also a grisly harbinger of what may come without urgent and drastic intervention.”

“These types of legal protections against unsafe conditions are an urgent and essential step toward saving lives. But our society doesn’t have the luxury of trying to solve one problem at a time. The future needs sustainable investment that aligns economic, social, and environmental interests, creating solutions that amplify one another rather than challenges that exacerbate one another. We need an economy that will be both climate-friendly and worker-friendly. … Changing course is not a small undertaking; it will require the creation of a new, more thoughtful economy. But it is clear that our current economy—one which treats workers as expendable and the future as an economic externality—is a looming disaster that none of us will escape.”

Additional Information

Civilian Occupations Required to Spend the Most Time Outdoors in 2020. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2021/civilian-occupations-required-to-spend-the-most-time-outdoors-in-2020.htm 

Shipley, J., Edwards, B., Nickerson, D., Benincasa, R., Chávez, S. M., Tompson, C. W. (2021, August 17). Heat is killing workers in the U.S. ー and there are no federal rules to protect them. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/17/1026154042/hundreds-of-workers-have-died-from-heat-in-the-last-decade-and-its-getting-worse 

Kjellstrom, T., Maître, N., Saget, C., Otto, M., Karimova, T. (2019). Working on a warmer planet: the impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work. International Labour Organization. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_711919.pdf 

Fact Sheet: Biden Administration Mobilizes to Protect Workers and Communities from Extreme Heat. (2021, September 20). The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/20/fact-sheet-biden-administration-mobilizes-to-protect-workers-and-communities-from-extreme-heat/

Samuelson, J. (2021, April 20). Competition must give way to collaboration to tackle the climate crisis. Aspen Institute. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/competition-must-give-way-to-collaboration-to-tackle-the-climate-crisis/ 

Samayoa, M. (2021, July 21). Hillsboro construction worker latest workplace heat death. Oregon Public Broadcasting. https://www.opb.org/article/2021/07/21/hillsboro-construction-worker-latest-workplace-heat-death/ 

§3395. Heat Illness Prevention in Outdoor Places of Employment. California Department of Industrial Relations. https://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/3395.html

Heat stress. Oregon Occupational Safety and Health. https://osha.oregon.gov/pages/topics/heat-stress.aspx

Be heat smart. Washington State Department of Labour & Industries. https://lni.wa.gov/safety-health/safety-training-materials/workshops-events/beheatsmart

Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. (2009). Heat Stress. Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. https://mn.gov/admin/assets/heat_stress_guide_tcm36-207189.pdf

“Inescapable.”

“It's a constant stressor.”

“I see no way out.”

What do professors, real estate agents, farmers, business executives, computer programmers and store clerks have in common?

They're not immune to the harsh reality of living paycheck to paycheck, according to dozens of people who responded to a Washington Post inquiry on Twitter.

They're millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers. They work in big cities and rural towns. They've tried to save — but rent, child care, student loans and medical bills get in the way.

National data on the paycheck-to-paycheck experience is flimsy, but a recent report from the Federal Reserve spotlights the prevalence of extra-tight budgets: 4 in 10 adults say they couldn't produce $400 in an emergency without sliding into debt or selling something, according to the 2017 figures.

The partial government shutdown, which began Dec. 22 and is temporarily halting pay for some 800,000 federal workers, has touched off a heated discussion on Twitter about what it means to get by in the United States. (President Trump warned this closure could “last a very long time” if Congress doesn't meet his demands for billions of dollars for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.)

Even brief income lapses can spell disaster for some households.

“My husband is a Park Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and he had to sign his furlough papers,” one woman tweeted. “We have a 4 yr. old and a 4-month-old, and we don't know when his next check will come. Mortgage is due, Christmas 2 days away.”

These and other #ShutdownStories took off online after Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) suggested last week that a gap in wages wouldn't be so bad.

“Who's living that they're not going to make it to the next paycheck?” he asked reporters, adding that most of those affected would qualify for back pay.

According to economists: A lot of people.

“It's astronomical what people need just to make it month to month,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor who now studies how middle-class families spend their wages at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that is funded by foundations and unions. “Given the high cost of transportation, housing, healthcare…. There is often no wriggle room.”

About 2,000 custodians, security guards, housekeepers and other federal building workers are losing money this holiday season because of the shutdown, according to 32BJ SEIU, an East Coast labor union — and because such staffers are employed by contractors, they won't be eligible for makeup checks.

“My supervisor told me we won't be getting paid,” one State Department cleaner told the Washington Post, “so my bills won't be getting paid.”

Beyond the federal labor sphere, workers across a variety of professions struggle to make ends meet.

Sol Smith, chair of liberal arts at a college of art and design in Orange County, said he landed his job after earning three degrees. But with four daughters and mounting healthcare costs, he said, saving just isn't possible.

“I see no way out,” he wrote in an email to the Post. “I am 40, have built a strong career, have 17 years experience, and if something were to happen to me, my wife and kids would be homeless within a year when my life insurance ran out.”

Lani Harrison, 43, said she and her software engineer husband have trouble buying groceries after paying the $2,249 rent on their two-bedroom Los Angeles apartment. They're raising three young kids and rely on her husband's income, she said. Her work as a certified car seat installer earns her $40 per appointment, but the work isn't steady.

Millennials see the lack of full-time jobs and affordable housing as the two biggest challenges facing their generation, with almost half of those in precarious employment saying their work status causes depression or anxiety, according to a new survey of young people in Hamilton.

Only 44 per cent of millennials working in the area have found full-time, permanent jobs, the report said. The majority reported not having jobs that provide extended health benefits, pension plans, or employer-funded training, while 38 per cent said they expected to be worse off than their parents, the report said.

The study conducted by McMaster University and the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group surveyed 1,189 employed millennials in Hamilton. While not a representative sample of the entire demographic, the report says its findings are a “reasonable picture of what it is like” for workers under the age of 35 in the broader region.

“You hear a lot of criticism of this generation, but I think they are one of the most ambitious exciting generations,” said researcher Jeffrey C. Martin, who co-authored the report with McMaster University professor Wayne Lewchuk. “But the cards haven’t been dealt well for them.”

“Unionization in the gig economy might sound like an oxymoron, but for those who feel mistreated by the platforms they work for, independence is beside the point. While many professionals are choosing to work as freelancers and contract workers, gig economy workers are just as likely to be working independently out of necessity.”

“‘There are people who do this because the lifestyle appeals to them, but there are also people doing this because they don’t have better choices, and would prefer a more stable and less precarious working situation,’ says Mr. Kurth, who is also an organizer with Foodsters United, a group of Toronto-based couriers seeking unionization. ... Mr. Kurth says the relationship between Foodora and its workers has deteriorated since he began making deliveries 3½ years ago; that’s what inspired him to help establish Foodsters United, joining a number of organizations globally that are looking to change working conditions for gig economy workers through unionization.”

“Foodsters United is seeking to have its members reclassified as ‘dependant contractors’ under the Ontario Employment Standards Act on the basis that they don’t actually have the freedom and autonomy that most associate with the job. Unlike many gig economy platforms, Foodora couriers can’t begin working whenever they choose. Instead, individual shifts of two to six hours are assigned weekly on a first-come, first-serve basis, with priority given to top performers.”

The Globe and Mail, August 8, 2019: “Why some gig workers are pushing to unionize,” by Jared Lindzon

Global News, August 9, 2019: “Push to unionize Foodora could be ‘watershed moment’ for Canadian gig economy: employment lawyer,” by Abigail Bimman

The Globe and Mail, August 7, 2019: “Foodora couriers in Toronto preparing to vote on union certification”

CBC News, August 7, 2019: “Foodora couriers could create Canada's 1st unionized workforce of app-based workers”

Times Colonist, August 13, 2019: “Foodora union voting ends but battle to unionize far from resolved”

Foodsters United

Foodora launches vote 'no' campaign against union certification

PressProgress, August 8, 2019: “Foodora is Pushing Anti-Union Propaganda to Gig Economy Workers Through Its Mobile App, Labour Board Told”

CBC News, August 12, 2019: “Foodora launches vote 'no' campaign against union certification,” by Tiffany Lam

A first-of-its-kind study has found more than half of total faculty positions at publicly funded Canadian universities in 2016/17 were contract jobs.

The study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents some contract faculty in Canada, found that 53.6 per cent of faculty positions at 67 Canadian universities were contract. There were nearly 38,700 contract faculty positions and almost 33,500 tenure or tenure-track positions.

“On the surface, the well-being of the American worker seems rosy. Unemployment in the U.S. hovers near a 50-year low, and employers describe growing shortages of workers in a wide array of fields. But looking beyond the numbers tells a different story. [The author’s] new book, ‘The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty,’ reveals that some Americans are experiencing an erosion in the world of work that is hurting their well-being, relationships and hopes for the future.”

“We can’t simply blame the rise of the gig economy. It’s also a result of a growing impermanence in the U.S. economy, with more short-term jobs that lack security and decent benefits. At the same time, worker wages continue to stagnate, which underscores the breadth of the problem.”

“The unemployment rate, which at 3.7% is about the lowest since 1969, is the usual metric economists and others use to understand the labor market and how workers are faring. Although statistics like this suggest there’s an abundance of jobs in the American labor market, it tells us nothing about their quality and ignores a more complex reality. Moreover, it fails to account for the growing and disconcerting prevalence of what is called precarious work, or short-term or contract jobs with minimal protections for workers such as less sick time or no health insurance.”

The Conversation, July 18, 2019: “Voices from an age of uncertain work – Americans miss stability and a shared sense of purpose in their jobs,” by David L. Blustein

Economic Policy Institute, February 20, 2019: “State of Working America Wages 2018,” by Elise Gould

“As a society, we have previously assumed that if young Canadians invest in formal training and ‘pay their dues’ in poor quality jobs early in their careers, they will work their way into better quality employment. A recent report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) suggests a different reality. The study ... reports that working in a professional job no longer provides Canadians with working conditions that are optimal for health, regardless of skills and training. And that Canadians are most susceptible to this job instability at the early stages of their career. ... The long-term public health implications of these trends will be significant, and should be addressed at the policy level.”

“In [another] new study of more than 1,000 Canadian millenials, 44 per cent reported job precarity. Close to half of those in precarious jobs also reported depression or anxiety directly related to their working situation. Job precarity can add to a number of social and economic challenges facing millennials including rising personal debts, growing costs of living, shrinking access to pensions and lower retirement savings. ... The hurdles faced by millennials inside and outside of the workplace can have a ‘scarring effect’ and can contribute to adverse work outcomes (such as unemployment, missed work days, loss of confidence) that extend across adulthood.”

“Focusing on the working conditions of millennials offers an important opportunity to foster early and sustained mental health and prevent chronic conditions. In particular, we need policies to address the changing nature of work for Canadians. In some provinces, recent policy changes have been made to protect workers in precarious jobs by increasing the minimum wage, ensuring pay equity or offering emergency leave. ... Tackling the specific labour market experiences of millennials represents a critical approach to promoting the health of young Canadians as they enter the workforce and throughout their working lives.”

The Conversation, September 6, 2018: “For millennials, employment is a public health challenge,” by Arif Jetha

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, August 21, 2018: “No Safe Harbour: Precarious Work and Economic Insecurity Among Skilled Professionals in Canada,” by Trish Hennessy and Ricardo Tranjan (40 pages, PDF)