Screw the Hierarchy

While the COVID-19 outbreak shows a dire need for worker support, it exposes a need that's been there all along. Global crises aren't the only types of crises that shake up our lives. Personal and family crises can put us in critical situations that require more support.

Find out what support through proposed legislation (and some passed, but no more than 22 percent of the nation on any given bill) is important for all of our well-being — support we should've had all along.

State bills

Contact your state legislators to ask them to move the bills forward in your state. If pro-employee bills have been proposed in your state for these topics (and more: at-will employment, bereavement leave, and paid FMLA), let us know by emailing [email protected], and we’ll get the word out.

Abusive waivers

A provision in a contract waiving a right or remedy relating to a claim of discrimination, nonpayment of wages or benefits, retaliation, or harassment in employment shall be void and unenforceable. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.1049. Email [email protected] and [email protected] to ask to move the bill forward.

Credit reports

A person shall not use a consumer report in connection with or as a criterion for an employment purpose, request or procure a consumer report for employment purposes, or require an employee or applicant to answer a question about the contents of a consumer report or the information contained in it regarding credit worthiness, credit standing or credit capacity. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.2310. Email [email protected] and [email protected] to ask to move the bill forward.

Injured workers

Protects injured works from unfair hiring and firing. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.2401/H.4174. Email [email protected] and [email protected] to ask to move the bill forward.

You're invited to attend a briefing tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10, 1:30-2:30pm, Room 222 of the Massachusetts State House to learn more about the need to clarify and strengthen the workers' compensation anti-retaliation law. Presenters include injured workers who've suffered from employer retaliation, worker organizations and lawyers who represent workers denied access to medical care and workers' comp benefits, and workers' comp experts on how workers are shut out of the workers' comp system due to unscrupulous employer behavior.

Minimum wage

Increases the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

Rhode Island: S.2147. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs — used to silence targets and versions passed in Arizona, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington, while legislation has been proposed in Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia)

Would ban the use of non-disclosure agreements. Details vary by state.

Iowa: H.110. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Kansas: H.2324. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Massachusetts: S.929. Email [email protected] to ask to move it forward.

New Mexico: H.21. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Rhode Island: S.2140. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Texas: S.159. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

West Virginia: H.2050. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

One fair wage (for tipped workers and versions passed in Alaska, California, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington and proposed in Connecticut, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont)

Would raise the minimum wage for tipped workers incrementally to require they're eventually paid the full minimum wage. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.1082/H.1617. Email [email protected] to ask to move it forward.

North Carolina: H.366. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Rhode Island: S.2143. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Vermont: H.429. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Overtime

Updates salary thresholds for overtime work.

Massachusetts: S.2313/H.4025. Email [email protected] and [email protected] to ask to move the bill forward.

Scheduling (for hourly workers and versions passed in Oregon plus a few major cities)

Across the country, retail, food service, and hospitality workers are notified too late of their schedules, forced to work on-call and "clopening" shifts (closing followed by opening), and have their time outside of work repeatedly disrespected by their employers. This bill would allow workers the chance to build stable lives for themselves and their families. Fair Workweek legislation will ensure that workers in restaurants, retail establishments, and the hospitality industry would for the first time have the right to 14 days advance notice from the employer of scheduled hours, request specific hours without retaliation from the employer, a minimum rest period of 11 hours between shifts, be offered any additional available hours before an employer can hire a new employee to fill them, and collect unemployment benefits when an employer’s failure to comply with Fair Scheduling practices is the worker’s reason for leaving a job. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.1110/H.3809. Email [email protected] to ask to move it forward.

Paid sick leave

Mandates employer-paid sick leave. Details vary by state.

Pennsylvania: S.13. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Wage theft (versions passed in Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Oregon)

Intended to discourage and penalize wage theft (not paying workers wages they’re owed). The bill would empower the attorney general and workers to hold accountable employers who commit wage theft or look the other way while it's happening by issuing stop work orders in wage theft cases and bring civil wage theft violations to court. It also provides workers greater protection from retaliation and allows workers and whistleblowers to also bring forward public enforcement actions in court. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.1066/H.1610. Email [email protected] to ask to move it forward.

Workplace abuse

Creates a legal claim for targets of workplace abuse who can prove they were subjected to abusive behavior and provides defenses for employers who act preventively and responsively to discourage frivolous claims. Details vary by state.

Massachusetts: S.1072. Email [email protected] and [email protected] to ask to move the bill forward.

New Jersey: S.633. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

New York: S.2261/A.7366. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Pennsylvania: H.1693. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Rhode Island: S.2092A. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org and email these legislators to move it forward: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

West Virginia: HB2062. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Utah: HB12. Ask your state legislators to move this bill forward. Find them at OpenStates.org.

Know of any other pro-worker bills? Email me at [email protected].

Federal bills

We can also push for other pro-employee bills with federal legislators.

BE HEARD Act (HR 2148)

Bringing An End To Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination in the Workplace Act

Current law doesn’t do enough to stop discrimination, particularly for the most vulnerable workers. To address the issue, the ACLU drafted Principles and Priorities for Legislative Action to Eliminate Workplace Harassment for Congress. The BE HEARD Act strengthens and broadens discrimination laws, removes barriers for targets, and helps employers create incentives and accountability for safe workplaces:

It extends protections to all. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act doesn’t address workers in small businesses. This law would cover all employees regardless of business size plus independent contractors, volunteers, interns, fellows, and trainees — and add LGBTQ workers as a protected class.

It gives targets a fair chance in court. Case law requires that harassment be “severe or pervasive” to win in court, often unattainable and that groping may not even fall under. The bill outlines what conduct is and is not unlawful to give guidance to the courts who’ve historically excused abusive conduct, blocking justice, and preventing others from speaking up.

It promotes transparency. Acts of discrimination are most often kept private, furthered with agreements that mandate arbitration rather lawsuits upon starting jobs. The bill would ban mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements upon accepting a job.

It restores protections for workers harassed by supervisors. The bill would make holding employers liable for supervisor harassment easier.

It assists employers in creating harassment-free workplaces. The bill authorizes research and data collection and gives employers template policies, trainings, and surveys plus best practices.

Paycheck Fairness Act (HR 7)

An effort to address the gender pay gap, the Paycheck Fairness Act holds employers accountable for retaliating against workers who share wage information and places the burden on employers to justify pay gaps. Workers can then sue for wage discrimination.

PRO Act (HR 2474)

The PRO Act will empower workers to negotiate better wages, benefits, and working conditions while preventing employers from interfering in union elections and other workers’ rights violations through penalties. It will also override “right-to-work” laws that prevent unions from collecting dues from the workers they represent. (Unions are force that drives gender equality, higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces, but union membership is only 10 percent of the country’s workforce.)

Know of any other pro-worker bills? Email me at [email protected].

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

The legal system is a game that favors employers over employees. Listen to four major ways in which there's a huge asymmetry of power that give plaintiffs far less control and less support from their attorneys compared to employers.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

What do your values have to do with whether or not you'll keep your job at a company? I sat down with Janice White, blogger and founder of The Empowered Employee, to go over Cynthia Shapiro's book Corporate Confidential.

In her book, Shapiro reveals insights about what your employer won't tell you about how they really feel about you, what can kill your career, and how to become indispensable. Janice adds her "employee confidential" insights about what's missing from the equation when employers take specific approaches.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

Legal representation is crucial for winning a legal case. But what happens when your race both affects your ability to search for a lawyer and lawyers' implicit bias in who they select as clients? In this episode, I dive into two major factors that influence the ability of people of color to obtain legal representation.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

Favoritism. Sabotage. Removal of responsibilities.

It all happened to a superstar sales manager at a major corporation.

Listen to how she overcame the depression, her mindset now, and advice she has for targets of workplace abuse.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

How can you go from taking on other people's problems through worry and control — that doesn't solve anything — to detaching, taking on our own problems and only our own problems? In this episode, I talk with fellow workplace abuse expert Ms. Camay about detachment and how to stop trying to change things we can't, accept outcomes, and give ourselves the ok to enjoy life despite our unsolved problems. Ms. Camay is an expert and coach in navigating the legal aspects of workplace abuse, from negotiating a severance to how much to ask for. https://www.mscamayinternational.com/

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

How does an employee go from noticing bias or discrimination and reporting it to having their entire character and competence brought into question publicly? In this episode, I talk about how the conflict between employee and employer escalates based on the asymmetry of power, which re-enforces the social hierarchies based on demographics.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

Alright, so I'm a COMPLETE Survivor junkie, and this season brings together past Survivor winners from the past 39 seasons for Winners At War. I've been hoping to see this setup happen for a while.

In this episode, I look at the demographics of the first 39 seasons and how what happens reinforces our perceptions of social power.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

The legal system re-inscribes the very hierarchies discrimination law was designed to attack, according to the mind-blowing book Rights on Trial.

No social change.

Not much correcting discriminatory behavior at work.

Simply more bias through the stereotyping that created the discrimination in the first place.

In this episode, I talk about seven ways the legal system re-discriminates, leaving not much changed since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy

I spoke with Sarah Michelle, the CEO of HoneyMAP and creator of the Successful(ish) podcast, about ending identity crisis and redefining success.

Find out how she discovered imposter syndrome, how we can work through disqualifiers that lead us to imposter syndrome, and how we take control of the narratives in our heads.

If you feel like you need more help, I have a free guide to recovery steps at dignitytogether.org/targets and a signup for daily boosts through your inbox at the same place.

Facebook: @HierarchyPodcast

Twitter: @ScrewHierarchy