25 years after welfare reform, let’s revisit “the magic bureaucrat”
It’s been 25 years since our country upended its welfare system – and so we’re looking back at our very first episode. We spent that first season of ...
The Uncertain Hour
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About
Each season, we explain the weird, complicated and often unequal American economy — and why some people get ahead and some get left behind. Host Krissy Clark dives into obscure policies and forgotten histories to explain why America is like it is.
The latest season examines this thing we used to call employment: what happened to it, why it happened and what a workforce made up of “nonemployees” means for our future.
My boss is an app
The gig-app workforce has arrived at our doorstep. But Silicon Valley’s innovations in hiring are only the latest round of this long-running battle ov...
Inside baseball
In minor league baseball, professional athletes train, suit up and play for wages that would be illegal in most sectors. Players live in crowded apart...
Big Boss, Little Boss
After Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, he took both companies to court — the subcontractor he worked for and its client, Koch Foods. The “little bo...
To catch a chicken
When chicken catcher Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, virtually overnight, he started doing the same job for a new boss — only without the pay, pro...
The liquid workforce
Over a quarter of the world’s largest employers don’t just make or sell products — they also rent out workers. Let’s talk about how we got here. For e...
“To suffer or permit to work”
This week we’re finally going to tell you what happened to Jerry Vazquez — and how his story relates to the 1930s case of a hotel chambermaid. Jerry a...
Who’s the boss?
Jerry Vazquez was in the cleaning business now, and his clients liked him. They’d leave him notes, some with smiley faces drawn in. But, he says, he w...
Congratulations! You’re an entrepreneur now
Jerry Vazquez always dreamed of working for himself. So when he saw a notice in the PennySaver advertising janitorial franchises, he decided to go all...
‘The Uncertain Hour’ is back!
Employment as we know it is changing. The kinds of jobs where one person works for one employer for years — with health insurance, sick days, paid vac...