NYC Retail Workers Struggle for Wages, Benefits, and Steady Work
NYC Retail Workers Struggle for Wages, Benefits, and Steady Work
Jean Stevens: Retail Workers Struggle for Wages, Benefits, and Steady Work
Tamara Green of Brooklyn has worked in New York City retail stores for the past eight years, rotating through sales associates and supervisor positions. There was a time, she said, when she could make a living doing it.
But with her current job at a cosmetics store working for Estee Lauder, a make-up and skincare company, it?s nearly impossible to pay her bills each month and support her two children. She spent months applying for jobs earlier this year, but most employers only offered her minimum wage, no benefits, along with more responsibilities. They cared little about her experience and credentials in cosmetology.
Green and other workers feel they have to take what they can get. ?Everyone is so afraid of losing their jobs,? she said. ?People have to eat. [Stores] take advantage of that.?
Women retail workers, especially women of color, struggle for equal pay, regular hours, healthcare, and other benefits, according to a new study, ?Discounted Jobs: How Retailers Sell Workers Short,? released yesterday by the Murphy Institute of the City University of New York, which studies labor and economic issues, and the Retail Action Project, an organization of retail workers.
The struggle arises out of a changing retail industry, whose advocacy organization, the National Retail Federation, began its annual convention this Sunday in New York. (The Retail Action Project is leading a rally for better wages and benefits at the NRF expo today.) Large stores and chains have replaced full-time with part-time workers to avoid mandatory healthcare payments and to allow for work schedules that accommodate predicted shopping patterns.
Nearly 60 percent of the 400 New York City retail workers surveyed citywide were hired as part-time, temporary, or holiday workers, according to the study. But most retail workers surveyed wished to work more, not less. These workers, dubbed ?involuntary part-time workers,? have increased in the retail industry by 144 percent in the past six years. In November 2008, due to their inability to find other work or to lackluster consumer demand in the retail sector, 7.3 million people worked part time?nearly double the 3.9 million part-time workers in April 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. By last year, the number climbed to 8.4 million.
Only 17 percent of workers surveyed in the study were given fixed, reliable schedules. Only about a third knew their schedules more than a week ahead of time. That?s a problem, study authors argue, because it prevents workers from arranging child care, classes, medical appointments, and other vital life needs around set shifts. Women with children who sought retail jobs to supplement their income often find such fluctuating schedules make other work and school impossible.
Green said she never knows her schedule more than several days in advance. If she is given a schedule, her employer often does not honor it later. ?It?s always what?s convenient for [the stores],? Green said. ?You can?t say, ?I can?t work Tuesdays or Thursdays,? because you have class or another job. They want you to be open and available. Or else you?ll get fired.?
According to the report, many workers would arrive to work and be told they were not needed for the day, thanks to new computerized systems that allow store owners to estimate that day?s expected crowds and adjust workers accordingly. About 73 percent of workers said they were dismissed without pay within four hours, against New York state law. Meanwhile, more than a third of full-time workers and many part-time workers who worked overtime did not receive overtime pay as required by law, according to the study.
Green said she?s noticed fewer benefits offered to her fellow workers in the past few years, including health insurance. About three-quarters received no health insurance benefits; one-third obtained health insurance through a government program. Only 37 percent of workers with dependents received health insurance through work.
Employers treated workers of color differently from white workers. More than half of white workers received a raise and promotion after six months of work, while 39 percent and 28 percent of black and Latino workers received the same. Twice as many Latino workers experienced variation in their weekly schedules as white workers.
Green, who is African-American, says she receives the least pay of any of her coworkers. She said she cannot understand why, given her industry experience and equal performance. She feels she has little choice but to accept it, as she needs the income. ?The little money I get, it?s better than no money,? she said. ?I don?t have a choice.?
