How to End ‘Women’s Work’ and its Pay Gap
Co-published with The New York Times. New Zealand is pursuing a century-old idea to close the gender pay gap: not equal pay for equal work, but equal pay for work of equal value.
How the CARES Act Hurts Low-Wage Workers
Co-published with Dame Magazine. Employees of big retailers have become the backbone of American life under coronavirus quarantine. But even a new paid-leave law doesn't protect them.
What the American Working Class Really Looks Like
Co-published with Fusion. The Ft. Wayne Workers’ Project is uniting working class Americans of all beliefs, ethnicities and backgrounds.
Why It’s So Hard to Regulate Payday Lenders
Co-published with The New Yorker. Georgia has long struggled to rein in payday lenders, but even ambitious regulations can’t always stop the predatory practice.
Tip Till It Hurts
Co-published with TIME. The housekeeper’s job is to clean, change sheets, restock amenities and exit the room without leaving any personal traces behind. They are paid to be invisible and usually are.
My Life as a Retail Worker
Co-published with The Atlantic. After veteran reporter Joseph Williams lost his job, he found employment in a sporting-goods store. In a personal essay, he recalls his struggles with challenges millions of Americans return to day after
It Is Expensive to Be Poor
Co-published with The Atlantic. Minimum-wage jobs are physically demanding, have unpredictable schedules, and pay so meagerly that workers can't save up enough to move on.
Silicon Valley’s Offline Wage Wars
Co-published with Next City. For 10 years a massive income gap has been widening across Silicon Valley. Last November, however, the residents of San Jose voted in favor of a small but significant change: Raising the city’s
Everyone Only Wants Temps
Co-published with Mother Jones. Gabriel Thompson writes about his stint doing "on demand" grunt work for one of America's hottest growth industries.