Kristen Harknett (@KristenHarknett), Professor of Sociology at the University of California San Francisco and co-director of The Shift Project (a large-scale survey and research study of low-wage workers in the service sector) joins us to discuss the so-called “Great Resignation.”
Research Brief The labor of workers in the retail and food service sector – employed at grocery stores, fast food and casual dining restaurants, in hardware and electronics, in retail and working in warehouses, delivery, and fulfillment – is now, in the COVID-19 pandemic, recognized as “essential.” Yet, these frontline workers have long contended with difficult jobs under precarious conditions. In this report, I take a close look at working conditions in the service sector in New England before the onset of the COVID pandemic. I analyze reports of job quality collected by The Shift Project, which surveyed 2,200 hourly...
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused public and policy attention on the acute lack of paid sick leave for service-sector workers in the United States. The lack of paid sick leave is potentially a threat not only to workers’ well-being but also to public health.
Workplaces shape risk for exposure to COVID-19 through on-site safety practices, including the provision and required use of personal protective equipment, as well as protective policies such as paid sick leave and the flexibility to work from home.
While essential workers have received a lot of acknowledgment for working through the COVID-19 pandemic, recent reports and surveys have found that these workers are facing many challenges concerning their health and financial situations. OSHA has allowed individual employers to set their own safety standards and protocols, leading to discrepancies.
Former director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling, discusses how COVID has prevented millions of Americans from being there for one another in meaningful moments, but that for the economically disadvantaged this was already a common experience. The Shift Project has examined how many workers at the largest retail and food companies have back-to-back closing and opening shifts, unstable work schedules, and are required to be on-call.
Come January 2021, the Virginia General Assembly will resume debates over whether or not employers should be required to provide paid sick leave. According to recent data from The Shift Project, about 1.2 million Virginians lack paid sick time or family leave.
The Shift Project’s Fall ’20 survey asked employees at the largest retail and food companies about PPE practices, revealing a significant percentage of workers unable to socially distance and dealing with customers unwilling to mask. There is notable variance between employers as well, based on cultural and political reasons.
We surveyed 8,422 workers at 32 of the largest retail and food service firms at two points in time - once early in the COVID-19 pandemic (average survey date was April 1) and once later in the spring of 2020 (average survey date was May 20). Only employers with 30 or more respondents in each wave are shown.
