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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Both Harris and Trump are courting the union vote, as blue-collar workers are key in swing states.</li><li>Experts told Business Insider that a Harris-Walz presidency would be much better for unions.</li></ul>On Wednesday, vice presidential nominee <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-vice-president-tim-walz-career-facts-2024-8#tim-walz-was-born-in-rural-west-point-nebraska-in-1964-1">Tim Walz</a> spoke to a group of firefighter union members and said that Kamala Harris would protect their rights far more than her opponent.On Thursday, vice presidential nominee <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-donut-shop-video-comment-georgia-2024-8">JD Vance</a> stood before the same crowd and said that when it came to worker protections, Trump was the way to go.The Democratic and Republican tickets are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-jd-vance-kamala-harris-tim-walz-union-support-2024-8">each courting the union vote</a> aggressively this election as blue-collar workers are a crucial voting bloc in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Union membership <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2023-year-of-the-strike-unions-sag-aftra-uaw-2023-12">fell to an historic low</a> last year, but a <a target="_blank" href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/12751/labor-unions.aspx">recent Gallup poll</a> found that support for unions is at a near record high, with 70% of Americans approving.Though union members have historically been loyal Democrats, Trump has made inroads with rank-and-file members, stoking fears that a once-stable demographic is slipping away."The Democratic Party in 2016 <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-hillary-clinton-wisconsin-rally-dnc-message-2024-8">took the worker vote for granted</a>," Robert Forrant, a labor historian, said. "They just thought it was a given that voters, that working class voters and union voters, would stay true to the Democratic Party. It doesn't work that way anymore."While most of the major unions have endorsed Harris, the influential Teamsters and International Association of Fire Fighters haven't yet thrown their support behind a candidate. And endorsements aside, rank-and-file members are more than welcome to buck their leadership when it comes to voting.For all the focus on wooing the working class this election, Harris and Trump presidencies would mean <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-harris-trump-dnc-speech-economy-inequality-wealth-tax-cuts-2024-8">very different things for union members</a>, experts told Business Insider. They agreed that a Harris-Walz administration would support organized labor <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-comments-musk-strike-could-hurt-him-swing-states-2024-8">far more than a Trump-Vance White House</a>.Experts stressed the importance of the National Labor Relations Board, the independent federal agency that oversees labor relations and protects workers' rights. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-administration-wants-good-jobs-fair-pay-touring-swing-states-2024-6">Presidents get to appoint </a>a general counsel and board members, who together decide what issues to prioritize and investigate."Those really swing back and forth from one administration to the next," Harry Holzer, the former chief economist at the US Department of Labor and a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, said of the appointments. "They are like the Supreme Court of labor law. Their interpretations and where they choose to do investigations — that matters a lot."Holzer said that the Biden-Harris appointees were significantly more pro-union and willing to investigate claims of labor law violations compared to Trump's."Broadly, the NLRB during Trump narrowed the scope of unions and union protections, and under Biden either those decisions were reversed and the role of unions was restored, or in some cases further expanded," Deborah Kobes, a senior fellow at Urban Institute's Center on Labor, Human Services, Population, told Business Insider.Kobes said that Trump's appointments restricted union elections, on-site picketing, and how dues are collected. She also noted that the Biden administration increased funding for the NLRB and significantly raised the re-hiring rate for illegally fired workers.Though Biden has a longstanding relationship with unions and the working class— he's been known as "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.notus.org/harris-2024/kamala-harris-has-a-scranton-problem">Scranton Joe</a>" throughout his years in the Senate and White House — Harris doesn't benefit from the same history. Still, experts said that she has a solid pro-union record and anticipate that she will enact relatively similar policies as the president."In the spirit of how they think about the role of the labor movement and the right to collective bargaining, there is no daylight," said Sharon Block, a board member of the NLRB under Barack Obama and current executive director at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. Block said that Harris' decision to choose <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-walz-midwest-fashion-experts-harris-campaign-2024-8">Walz, a former union member</a>, as her running mate also signals her focus on workers' rights.As a Senator, Harris worked to strengthen protections for workers in extreme heat and, as Vice President, briefly chaired a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/07/harris-blue-collar-labor-detroit-00173066">task force focused on worker empowerment</a>. In her role as chair, she spearheaded an effort to loosen federal barriers to organizing, which Block said indicates that "she believes strongly in the right to collective bargaining."Trump focuses on worker protections rhetorically — he's been saying he wants to support American labor at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/27/business/trump-labor-record/index.html">rallies since September</a> — but experts are skeptical that his policies align with his words.As president, he passed a series of executive orders that limited collective bargaining among federal workers that Biden quickly reversed, Forrant said. Several experts pointed out that neither he nor Vance support the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a piece of legislation that is stalled in the Senate and considered the crown jewel of pro-union labor efforts."It really sets out its goal explicitly about being intended to expand various labor protections related to employees, rights to organize and to collectively bargain in the workplace," Kobes said. "It includes a variety of provisions that really would work towards that, whether it's prohibiting companies from holding required anti-union meetings, to establishing penalties for companies that violate worker rights."Holzer and Forrant both said that the PRO Act is the top legislative priority for the labor movement. Harris supports the law, which is also included in the Democratic Party's platform. Beyond NLRB appointments and the PRO Act, Holzer said that the Biden-Harris administration has turned pro-union stances into legislation like the infrastructure bill.Trump also has policies that are not explicitly related to unions but nonetheless impact members. Holzer said some of his economic policies moving forward risk eroding union power — the proposed tariffs would likely be inflationary and recessionary, and the mass deportations would generally upend the economy."Most economists would say the things Trump thinks are good for the union workers really are not because they're bad for the economy, bad for the labor market," Holzer told Business Insider.The strength of organized labor ripples beyond union members as well, as Kobes said lots of evidence suggests that increasing their wages also increases non-union wages.Overall, the experts Business Insider spoke to concluded that a Harris administration would be better for union workers, and some said that a second Trump term could be worse than a first for workers' rights."There were at least a few guardrails in the first Trump administration," Holzer said. "I think those would likely be gone, both on domestic policy and foreign policy."He fears that NLRB appointments will be more "punitive" and that Trump might engage in "retribution" against the union leaders supporting Harris."I think we also have to remember that union members still overwhelmingly voted for President Biden and I have no reason to think that Vice President Harris won't do as well or better with union members in this election," Block said. "She is running as part of an administration that fairly calls itself the most pro-union administration in history, or at least since the Roosevelt administration."Despite their assessments, Trump maintains a hold on some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-middle-class-jd-vance-tim-walz-are-targeting-2024-8">rank-and-file members</a> for reasons both cultural and economic."People haven't done enough nitty-gritty polling, but my suspicion is some of it is connected to religion, to Evangelical voters who are union members and workers, but also vote with respect to cultural issues, religion, abortion, things like that," Forrant said. "I think that an element of Donald Trump's appeal also comes from the very hard line he takes on immigration."

What would a Harris and Trump presidency each mean for union workers?

Online home services marketplace <keyword id="8681398" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="urban-company" source="Orion">Urban Company</keyword> on Monday said it has awarded stocks worth Rs 5.2 crore to 497 service partners under the <keyword id="15640210" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="partner-stock-option-plan" source="Orion">Partner Stock Option Plan</keyword> (<keyword id="15640209" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="psop" source="Orion">PSOP</keyword>) programme. Of the total recipients, about 30 per cent were female service partners from the beauty and wellness vertical. <keyword id="6354321" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bengaluru" source="Orion">Bengaluru</keyword> had the highest number of partner shareholders with 26 per cent, followed by Delhi-NCR with 22 per cent, the company said in a statement. The company in March announced the PSOP programme for its service providers, where it will award stocks worth Rs 150 crore at near zero cost to thousands of service partners over the next 5-7 years. "This is just the start and we are hopeful that in the coming years, the numbers will rise to thousands," said Abhiraj Bhal, co-founder and CEO of Urban Company. The company has already received board approval for the first tranche of Rs 75 crore worth of stocks, to be disbursed over the next few years. Seven partners, who were part of the first cohort of stock recipients in March, received it again for the second time, due to their consistently high performance, it informed. Urban Company said it has established a fair process for awarding these shares and the entire process is rule-based and transparent, with an advisory panel providing complete guidance. According to the recently released 'H1 2022 <keyword id="15640211" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="uc-earnings" source="Orion">UC Earnings</keyword> Index', the top 20 per cent of UC partners earned an average of about Rs 38,000 per month. All Urban Company partners have health insurance coverage of Rs 1 lakh, with up to 12 free medical consultations per year for themselves. The best-performing partners (nearly 5,000 service partners) also have family health insurance coverage worth Rs 2 lakh. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/upcoming-new-car-and-suv-in-india-in-december-2022/slidelist/95823897.cms">Upcoming cars launching in India in December 2022</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/german-electronic-manufacturing-firm-hama-enters-india-market/articleshow/95827606.cms">German electronic manufacturing firm Hama enters India market</a>

Urban Company grants shares worth Rs 5.2 cr to 497 gig workers

Ever since hordes of Americans began fleeing big coastal cities during the pandemic, I've been wondering when — or if — they'd return. Sure, things are less expensive in the places they moved to, and the quality of life is often higher. But more and more, urban refugees have been pining for the things they left behind, from culinary excellence to cultural diversity. Every week it seems like I see a new story about some former San Franciscan or New Yorker regretting their decision to leave.So recently, when the Census Bureau released its new estimates for domestic migration, I thought we were finally going to see a reversal of the big-city exodus. But I was wrong. From mid-2022 to mid-2023, the bleeding in many big metropolitan areas continued. New York lost 238,000 more people than it gained. The numbers read like casualty reports: 155,000 in Los Angeles, 54,000 in San Francisco, 25,000 in Seattle. Granted, the urban flight isn't as bad as the crisis-level hemorrhaging we saw in the first year of the pandemic. But every day, hundreds and hundreds of people continue to forsake America's greatest cities for smaller, more affordable destinations.We've heard a lot about how the mass migration has been bad for major cities, sending them into a "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-doom-loop-fix-american-city-housing-transit-2023-7">doom loop</a>" of empty offices and shuttered storefronts. But <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w32250">a new paper</a> coauthored by Enrico Moretti, one of the best thinkers on the geography of jobs, highlights the dangers the migration poses for the very professionals who are ditching big cities. Moving away from a major city, Moretti found, can be terrible for your career.Moretti, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, followed workers whose companies shut down between 2010 and 2017. How people fared after that depended on where they lived. Those who lived in small labor markets were less likely to find a new job within a year than those in large labor markets. To get back on their feet professionally, those in small markets were more likely to be forced to relocate for employment. They were also more likely to settle for a role that was misaligned with their college degree, or in an entirely different industry."The big takeaway is that market size matters," Moretti says. "It's clear that larger markets improve the quality of the match."That's precisely why workers and the companies that employ them tend to cluster in the same cities. Economists call it agglomeration. Let's say you're a coder specializing in AI. You're far more likely to find a job in San Francisco than you are pretty much anywhere else in the world, because there are a lot of AI-related companies there. And it's because AI specialists flock to San Francisco that AI businesses set up shop there in the first place. That's how cities become hubs for particular industries, like finance in New York and fashion in Paris. And that's why people put up with all the downsides of cities — because it increases their odds of growing their careers. Moretti's new paper confirms that when it comes to jobs, geography is destiny.At first it seemed as though the pandemic had rewritten that rule. With the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-big-battle-over-work-from-home-remote-employees-salaries-pay-cut">rise of remote work</a>, professionals thought they could afford to leave their expensive cities without a risk to their careers. If you moved to Des Moines and wound up losing your job, you could just stay put and get another work-from-home gig. Your house might be in Iowa, but your job market was still back in California or New York.But over the past year, more and more employers have stopped hiring for remote roles. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-wfh-jobs-application-odds-tech-market-rto-2023-9">market for WFH jobs</a> has cratered, putting everyone who moved away from big cities at risk. If they wind up getting laid off or they outgrow their current role, living in a smaller job market is going to severely limit their career options. As Moretti's paper shows, they'll either (1) wind up unemployed for a long stretch, (2) be forced to settle for a local job they're overqualified for, or (3) have to make an abrupt and costly move back to the big city they abandoned.Moretti characterizes being in a large labor market as "insurance" against future shocks. Living in a big city isn't just about having a good job right now. It's what sets you up for success to land your next job — and the job after that. Those who moved away from big cities effectively gave up their career insurance.And that's not all they gave up. When you live in an industry hub, you're surrounded by professional peers, making it easier for you to accumulate knowledge and skills. That's not just because you get to collaborate in person with your coworkers every day. In a big city, you also run into people who work for other companies in your industry — on the bus, at the bar, in line at the deli. Those serendipitous conversations not only expand your professional network, they also create what economists refer to as "knowledge spillovers," helping you learn new stuff that's relevant to your work. That's why innovation, as measured by patents, is higher in large markets, and why businesses in big cities tend to have higher productivity.These upsides to living in a big hub are less obvious than the low rents and nice homes that have lured so many professionals to smaller cities. They also take time to manifest — you have to lose your job before you realize how hard it will be to find another. So professionals haven't come to grips yet with what they gave up by moving away. "The benefits of being a big city," Moretti tells me, "have been underappreciated" during the pandemic.Until recently, I was one of those underappreciators. In 2021, my remote job allowed me to move from San Francisco to Sacramento for my then-wife's job. We could suddenly afford a spacious two-bedroom in an apartment complex with a pool, and I loved the slower pace of life. Even after we split up, my initial plan was to stay in Sacramento. But as I started driving into San Francisco more often to meet with sources in the tech industry, I realized that being in the city was helping me come up with better story ideas. So a few months ago, I moved back to the Bay Area. Being here makes me better at my job. And if I should lose my job at some point, I know my search will go much better here, where there are more journalism jobs, than it would if I had stayed in Sacramento.Of course, lots of professionals who left big cities during the early days of remote work will stay where they are, even if they lose their jobs. After all, one of the other trends spurred by the pandemic was the realization that career isn't everything. Plenty of people will be happy to settle for a lesser job if it means they don't have to sit in soul-crushing traffic and can have a big backyard for their kids.But Moretti thinks the exodus from big cities is nearing an end. As the outward migration slows, he predicts, new people looking for career opportunities will flood into urban areas, more than making up for the people who left. The big hubs will resume agglomerating, just as they did in the decades leading up to the pandemic. Cities, in short, will be cities again."It's more a matter of when than if," Moretti says. "I never thought this was going to be a permanent change in the geography of labor."Madison Hoff contributed reporting.Aki Ito is a chief correspondent at Business Insider.

Remote workers are about to get a rude awakening

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Los Angeles' downtown has become a hot spot for residential growth in the city.</li><li>The neighborhood's office market, however, continues to languish.</li></ul>For generations, downtown Los Angeles was the region's nexus of commerce, as vast office spaces and old-line department stores made the neighborhood a business powerhouse.But urban decay and suburbanization, which accelerated after World War II, made downtown into more of a 9-to-5 office hub. For decades, the city core was a destination for work but not much else.That all changed after 2000 when there was sustained residential growth in downtown Los Angeles. And since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, that growth has only strengthened. The neighborhood is now a major draw for residential development.According to the DTLA Alliance, a coalition of more than 2,000 central business district property owners, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bisnow.com/los-angeles/news/commercial-real-estate/downtown-los-angeles-residential-revitalization-dcbid-studiob-121562">there are nearly 100,000 residents living downtown</a> in new developments like the 41-floor Figueroa Eight apartment building or the numerous historic buildings that have been restored in the area.It's created one of the country's most unique downtown living dynamics: Most downtown residents don't work in the neighborhood, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-05-02/a-tale-of-two-downtowns-office-towers-are-empty-but-apartments-are-full">The Los Angeles Times reported</a>.While the neighborhood benefits from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/travel/downtown-los-angeles-california-art-deco-architecture.html">its Union Station transit hub</a> and is home to Los Angeles City Hall, it has — like other cities — seen an exodus of businesses as work-from-home policies put into place during the pandemic caused many companies to either relocate to smaller spaces, cut the amount of office space that they needed downtown, or abandon their office footprints altogether.The real estate services firm CBRE recently reported that only about two-thirds (65%) of office space in downtown Los Angeles was occupied in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Times.Despite the office emigration, living in downtown LA has become so desirable that Jessica Lall, the head of CBRE's downtown Los Angeles office, told the Times a plan endorsed by the city would allow the neighborhood to absorb 20 percent of the projected housing growth for the entire city through 2040, a significant figure <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-affordable-housing-los-angeles-construction-regulations-lorena-plaza-delays-2023-12">in a city starved for affordable housing</a> and a state where <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-population-growth-central-valley-bay-area-housing-affordability-exodus-2023-11">there's been an exodus of residents</a> due to high housing costs.

Downtown Los Angeles is bustling with new residents. Not so much with office workers, though.

<ul><li>Even though the ‘<keyword id="3080230" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gig-economy" source="Orion">gig economy</keyword> workforce’ is a new concept, the <keyword id="37465" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="film-industry" source="Orion">film industry</keyword> has been working with such a model for decades.</li><li>The Indian film industry employed over 2.5 lakh people in 2017 alone.</li><li>Despite the unionisation of the Indian film industry that protects the rights of freelancers, there are a lot of issues left to be dealt with.</li></ul>Gig workforce is the hottest new trend that has emerged with the rise of the digital economy leading to the advent of companies like Zomato, Swiggy and <keyword id="8681398" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="urban-company" source="Orion">Urban Company</keyword>. Widely overlooked, but the concept of hiring contractual employees has been around for decades, if not centuries. That’s right. The Indian film industry has been one of the biggest employers of gig economy workers since its beginning. The Indian film industry employed over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/731218/employment-in-the-film-industry-india/">2.5 lakh </a>people in 2017 alone. Business Insider hosted Academy Award winner and Indian film producer Guneet Monga and Urban Company’s cofounder Varun Khaitan in its Future of Work event — held on September 16 and 17 — to throw more light on the topic. Monga said that the film industry in general has been employing several freelancers for decades, whether it is light boys, dancers, junior artists, art directors, cinematographers and more. The term <keyword id="7771650" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gig-workers" source="Orion">gig workers</keyword> has come up with the advent of the digital economy. “It can seem unstructured, but it actually works very well in the <keyword id="278613" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="freelance" source="Orion">freelance</keyword> business there… There is a union in this segment and that brings about a structure. But there are also some major challenges that come with it,” she added. She elaborated that the many freelancers have spoken about how difficult it is to get into the union or how expensive it is. Besides this, the segment does not get health benefits, does not come under labour codes and more, even though the payments are fixed due to the existence of a union. Watch More: What film producer Guneet Monga talks about unionisation in Indian film industry and what challenges it presents <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> Khaitan, on the other hand, elaborated how Urban Company, an at-home services startup, has managed to overcome such challenges in the beauty and home segment. He noted that a salon or a service shop would employ 10-15 professionals and were essentially the “middlemen”, therefore a professional’s income would be capped. Urban Company has not only offered a more flexible working environment, but also increased their take home income and offered them health benefits. Khaitan also noted that allowing these service professionals to get in touch with customers directly has provided them with more respect and business prepositions as well. “There is actually a very high price point here [Indian film industry] even to become a part of the Union. And then there is a supply of enough and more people are constantly getting inducted, but there is definitely a bottleneck on how unions function. They do protect them [freelancers] in terms of providing for jobs, but the kind of structures that you [Urban Company] are talking about is still, I feel, not in the best shape here right now. And this has just been our industry that has been thriving on freelance,” Monga added. She elaborated that while the Indian film industry has been striving for freelancers, it's not with a vision of bringing people together or offering insurance or health benefits or looking into labour laws. Watch More: What Urban Company’s Varun Khaitan had to say on the current conditions of freelancers in Indian film industry <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Video"><cdata><![CDATA[ ]]></cdata></div> Khaitan, sharing his experience, said “There are middlemen who claim to be good representatives and good samaritans of the workers, but are actually not. They are in some sense the heart of the problem, because a few things that just came up in this chat show there is no sense of balance between supply and demand in what is happening across the trade in the film industry and what that leads to is there is no sense of actual monthly earnings. So everyone just fights for what I can make on this job and it leads to an unheadly spiral.” SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/the-only-way-to-beat-the-bots-from-taking-your-job-is-to-be-more-human/articleshow/86282273.cms">Future of Work 2021: The only way to beat the bots from taking your job is to be more human</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/easemytrip-touches-market-cap-of-a-billion-dollars/articleshow/86285130.cms">EaseMyTrip touches market cap of a billion dollars</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/biocon-hero-motocorp-tvs-motor-banks-and-other-top-stocks-to-watch-out-for-on-september-17/articleshow/86281250.cms">Biocon, Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor, banks and other top stocks to watch out for on September 17</a>

Here is what the Indian film industry can learn from gig economy firms like Zomato and Urban Company

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fewer people are relocating for work, but those who do see bigger pay increases.</li><li>Seattle, New York, and San Francisco have the highest salary boosts for newcomers.</li></ul>If you want a substantial <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salary-increases-raises-2024-jobs-negotiate-inflation-employees-wage-growth-2023-10">increase in earnings</a>, you're better off <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/job-market-relocation-moving-work-trends-new-city-data-employment-2023-7">relocating for a new job</a>, and Seattle is the best example.A November report from <a target="_blank" href="https://institute.bankofamerica.com/content/dam/bank-of-america-institute/economic-insights/on-the-move.pdf">Bank of America</a> based on internal customer data from the third quarter of 2023 echoed a previous report from the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker">Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta</a> that the biggest jumps in pay go to those who switch jobs. However, Bank of America's data revealed that relocating to some cities provides a bigger increase than others.While Bank of America found that people are more likely to move to sunny cities like Austin, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Tampa, the biggest pay increases go to those who move up north.In the third quarter of 2023, workers relocating to Seattle enjoyed an impressive 15% increase in their median paycheck year-over-year, the highest among the 26 major metropolitan cities tracked. This is more than double the 6.2% increase seen by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.atlantafed.org/chcs/wage-growth-tracker">job switchers</a> nationwide in November.In contrast, non-movers in Seattle saw a 1% increase in salaries. According to the Atlanta Fed, the national average was 5.3% for those who stayed in their job.<div type="image" title="Boston, Massachusetts skyline at dusk." height="3000" width="4000" msid="106518224" hostid="261" sizebytes="1175530"></div>Only Boston had a lower pay change for people staying in the city. It was below 0%, as non-movers saw a pay decrease on average.San Francisco, at 12%, and New York, at 11%, were next on the list for cities that provide the largest increase in pay to people moving. Bank of America noted this could be due to the high cost of living in both cities and the need to provide higher salaries.<div type="image" title="The difference in salary changes for people who moved to a city versus those who stayed." height="872" width="2160" msid="106518523" hostid="261" sizebytes="76166"></div><a target="_blank" href="https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2023/11/16/cost-of-living-seattle-washington-expensive">Seattle is not as expensive</a>, but one commonality with San Francisco and New York is the large concentration of tech and financial services sectors.Another reason for the bigger pay raises for movers may be that getting people to move for a new job is harder. From 1986 through 2022, the share of workers relocating for a job fell from more than 40% to under 5%, according to data from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas.<div type="image" title="Share of job seekers relocating for work" height="966" width="1386" msid="106518525" hostid="261" sizebytes="43742"></div><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/job-market-relocation-moving-work-trends-new-city-data-employment-2023-7">According to workplace experts previously interviewed by Business Insider</a>, this is being driven by higher costs of living, companies moving to bigger talent pools, remote work, and an aging population.Meanwhile, Florida is not having a problem attracting new residents as more working-age Americans are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-are-people-moving-florida-home-prices-cost-of-living-2023-12">moving to the state</a> for the weather and lack of state income tax. The cost is that its major cities have the lowest jump in pay for new residents.Tampa's and Miami's increases were both just under 4%. That rate was only slightly better than the 3% increase seen for Tampa residents who didn't move and 2% for people in Miami who stayed.In today's economy, mobility can be financially rewarding, especially in urban areas like Seattle.

Workers who move to Seattle get the biggest pay increases

While <keyword id="6354720" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ola" source="Orion">Ola</keyword> and tech-enabled logistics company <keyword id="67819" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="porter" source="Orion">Porter</keyword> scored zero on a scale of 1-10, <keyword id="1042120" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="uber" source="Orion">Uber</keyword> and <keyword id="3275685" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="dunzo" source="Orion">Dunzo</keyword> received only one point, according to the 'Fairwork India 2023' report, spearheaded by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP) at International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), in association with Oxford University. The report evaluated 12 platforms offering location-based services in sectors such as domestic and personal care, logistics, food delivery and transportation, in the country. This year, the report was structured around the theme of discrimination and alienation that often come up in experiences shared by platform workers. In a year that has seen the formulation of a significant regulation based on inputs from workers called The Rajasthan Platform Based <keyword id="7771650" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gig-workers" source="Orion">Gig workers</keyword> (Registration and Welfare Act, 2023, "we hope that highlighting the experiences of workers will point to the structural changes that platforms, consumers and the state alike will need to undertake if the platform economy is to offer its workers decent work," said Professors Balaji Parthasarathy and Janaki Srinivasan, principal investigators. Fairwork assessed platforms against five principles: Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management, and Fair Representation. Each principle was broken down into two points: a first point and a second point that can only be awarded if the first point has been fulfilled. The report looked at 12 platforms, including Amazon Flex, Bigbasket, BluSmart, Dunzo, Flipkart, Ola, Porter, Swiggy, Uber, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato. No platform scored more than six out of the maximum of 10 points, and none scored all the first points across the five principles. In its first year of participation, ride-hailing platform aggregator BluSmart scored higher than more established platforms in its sector, with 5 points out of 10. "There is room for cautious optimism that BluSmart's operational model might represent a step towards better conditions for drivers in the platform economy," the report mentioned. Bigbasket, Flipkart and Urban Company were the only platforms with a minimum wage policy to ensure that all their workers earn at least the hourly local minimum wage after factoring in work-related costs. "No platform made the second point of the Fair Pay principle, which requires platforms to provide sufficient evidence that workers earn at least the local living wage after work-related costs," the findings showed. Under the 'Fair Conditions' principle of providing adequate safety equipment and periodic safety training to their workers, Bigbasket, Swiggy, Urban Company, Zepto and Zomato were awarded the second point. Bigbasket, BluSmart, Urban Company, Zepto, and Zomato met the requirements for the second point under 'Fair Contracts' by adopting a change notification clause in their contracts, reducing asymmetries in liability, adopting a code of conduct for their subcontractors, and making the variables of pricing transparent where dynamic pricing was used. Under the 'Fair Management' principle, there was sufficient evidence only from BluSmart and Swiggy to meet the second point. "No platform could be awarded a point for 'Fair Representation' principle this year," said the report.

Ola, Porter, Uber & Dunzo worst digital platforms for gig workers: Report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Billionaire Don Hankey's company underwrote a $175 million appeal bond for Donald Trump.</li><li>Hankey's net worth is estimated at $7.4 billion and he oversees a $22.5 billion automotive empire.</li></ul>Billionaire Don Hankey swooped in on Monday and underwrote a $175 million <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-posts-bond-after-court-reduction-2024-4">appeal bond for Donald Trump</a>, saving the former president from getting his assets sold out from under him while he appeals his civil fraud case.The 80-year-old oversees Hankey Group, which employs over 3,400 people and whose assets are worth around $22.5 billion, per <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=2ba84a081783">Forbes</a>. The empire consists of eight companies in the automotive, finance, technology, real estate, and insurance industries.Hankey's Knight Specialty Insurance provided Trump's bond on Monday, three days before deadline.It's not the first time Hankey has been financially tied to an entity that's helped Trump out of a potential bind, although the businessman told Bloomberg he didn't do it for political reasons."Yes, I voted for him in the past, but this is a business deal and this is what we do," Hankey said in an <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-02/trump-175-million-bond-arranged-by-billionaire-supporter-s-firm">interview</a> with Bloomberg about the $175 million bond. "I have never met Donald Trump, nor talked to him on the phone."Hankey told the publication that he has also invested in Axos Bank, which <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-100-million-loan-trump-tower-bank-ceo-donor-2022-3">refinanced Trump Tower in 2022 </a>for $100 million after the previous loan for that amount had been placed on a debt watch list — but that his Axos Bank investment had nothing to do with Trump's bond. Axos Bank CEO Greg Garrabrants has previously donated around $50,000 to Republican campaigns since 2012, with $9,600 in support of Trump, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Gregory+Garrabrants&amp;max_date=12%2F31%2F2022">Federal elections records</a>.Hankey's net worth is estimated at $7.4 billion, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=2ba84a081783">Forbes</a> — and it's nearly doubled within the last three years.Hankey grew up a lot worker, washing and polishing cars, and later held a job as a salesman at his father's Ford dealership, which he fully acquired in 1972 and built his empire from, Bloomberg reported.Dubbed the "little-known king of subprime car loans" in his Forbes profile, his largest venture, Westlake Financial Services, operates as a subprime financing company and is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hankeygroup.com/companies/">worth</a> $16.8 billion in assets, according to the Hankey Group website. Westlake collaborates with car dealerships nationwide to offer loans to people with poor or nonexistent credit.The group also owns a real estate firm, Hankey Investment Company LP. The company owns 488,343 square feet of commercial property and 12 million square feet of urban development land in Southern California, according to the Hankey Group website.The billionaire generated buzz two years ago when he poured a reported $82.5 in financing into Bel Air megamansion <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-225-million-mansion-the-one-biggest-modern-home-us-2021-9">"The One," developed by Nile Niami</a>. The 105,000-square-foot property contains 21 bedrooms and 42 full bathrooms. It also includes a 4,000-square-foot guesthouse and a long list of luxury amenities including multiple infinity pools, a nightclub, a spa, a beauty salon, a bowling alley, and a movie theater.<div type="image" title="Aerial view of Bel Air Los Angeles neighborhood with mansions and golf course." height="2002" width="3000" msid="108984506" hostid="261" sizebytes="1092766"></div>However, a lack of interest in the property led to financial issues for its developer, Nial Niami's Crestlloyd, which filed for bankruptcy protection. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/500-million-bel-air-unfinished-mega-mansion-2021-9">mansion ended up auctioning</a> for less than half of its expected $500 million worth.Hankey became involved in some of the legal challenges over the property's ownership, but said he got all his capital commitments back after the property <a target="_blank" href="https://labusinessjournal.com/special-editions/wealthiest-angelenos/wealthiest-2023/7-don-hankey-2/">sold</a>, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.<div type="image" title="&quot;The One&quot; mansion Bel Air" height="2929" width="4500" msid="108984507" hostid="261" sizebytes="1267994"></div>Hankey attended the University of Southern California and currently resides in Malibu.He has been married for 40 years to Debbie Hankey and has four children, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/don-hankey/?sh=b177b3c17839">according to Forbes</a>.

Meet the billionaire 'king of subprime car loans' whose company underwrote Trump's $175 million civil fraud bond

<ul><li>From March 2022 to March 2023, approximately 82.84% of blue-collar hires had 0-3 years of work experience. </li><li>The most in-demand <keyword id="667744" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="blue-collar-jobs" source="Orion">blue collar jobs</keyword> are in security, where employers expect them to possess people skills. </li><li>Employers also prefer to invest in freshers who have tech skills, needed in an automated world. </li></ul>The market for blue collar jobs has been growing steadily. In particular, demand for blue collar security jobs grew three-fold in the past one year, exhibiting a 219% year-on-year growth in March 2023, says a report by Quess Corp. “The significant increase in demand for security services in the blue-collar workforce highlights the crucial need for maintaining a safe and secure workplace. Employers are now looking for security guards who are friendly, approachable, and skilled in conflict resolution to ensure the well-being of their employees,” said the report by Qjobs, a subsidiary of Quess Corp, a digital job platform for blue-collar job seekers. The other blue collar job vacancies that grew by a healthy 61.7% YoY are administrative and human resource positions, across industries. “Despite the changing economic climate, there is an increasing demand for blue-collar workers, especially in the HR/admin and security service job roles. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years, with more companies realizing the importance of investing in talent management and securing the workspace to improve their overall business performance,” said Amit Nigam, CEO, Billion Careers. The overall job vacancies for the blue-collar workforce in India also exhibited a positive trend growing 7% increase in the same period. Apart from government initiatives, rapid urbanization, infrastructure development, a growing middle class, and the rise of e-commerce is boosting growth in blue collar jobs. “Furthermore, India's investments in infrastructure development, including the construction of highways, airports, and ports, are expected to generate a plethora of blue-collar job opportunities in the transportation, logistics, and construction sectors,” said Nigam. Freshers constitute a major portion of new hires From March 2022 to March 2023, approximately 82.8% of blue-collar hires had 0-3 years of work experience, while those with seven or more years of experience represented only 0.15% of hires. “Additionally, some employers view freshers as a long-term investment in their future workforce, recognizing the benefits of having tech-savvy individuals in an increasingly automated world,” the report said. Similarly, skilled workers with people skills are being preferred for job roles such as event supervisors and on-ground security staff. There has also been a notable growth of 33% YoY in the counter sales and retail job category as well. This growth is likely attributed to the increased demand for goods and services, as well as the overall economic growth. In addition, the field sales job category experienced a significant YoY increase of 24.7%, and the business development job category also saw a rise of YoY growth of 20.6%. Women constitute only about 16% of the blue-collar workforce Despite the efforts made towards achieving gender equality, men still dominate the blue-collar industry in India, comprising a significant 84.26% of the workforce as of March 2023, the data reveals. Conversely, women only constitute 15.74% of the workforce due to several factors, such as unequal opportunities for skill development and career advancement. It is crucial for the government and companies to take steps to encourage women's participation in non-traditional jobs, ensure equitable pay for their work, and implement policies to guarantee a secure and welcoming work environment for them, the report said.

Most blue-collar jobs are going to freshers with tech skills: Quess report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Commercial real-estate <keyword id="6374217" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="landlords" source="Orion">landlords</keyword> are giving up on once trophy <keyword id="12161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="san-francisco" source="Orion">San Francisco</keyword> properties.</li><li>A lack of hope among real-estate owners stems from office vacancies, but crime is also a factor.</li></ul>Downtown San Francisco's fall from grace is unfolding quickly. Landlords large and small are waving the white flag over the increasing pressures facing the city, stemming in part from the downsizing of some of the <keyword id="6507481" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="largest" source="Orion">largest</keyword> employers and the inertia of remote work. In May, <a href="https://www.placer.ai/blog/placer-ai-office-index-may-2023-recap" target="_blank">foot traffic to San Francisco offices was down nearly 60%</a> compared to 2019 — the largest deficit of the major <keyword id="18037780" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="us-urban" source="Orion">US urban</keyword> centers tracked by Placer.ai, and it shows. The city's 18 million square feet of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-chronicle-map-shows-vacant-office-buildings-downtown-2023-5">empty office space is so vast that it could house 92,000 people, according to the San Francisco Chronicle</a>. Since April, the office tower at 350 California Street sold for an alarming 75% less than its estimated value before the pandemic. The owner of the flagship Hilton San Francisco Union Square and the nearby Parc 55 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-defaults-office-buildings-park-hotels-725-million-loan-2023-6">handed the keys to its creditors</a> rather than try to make payments on a $725 million loan. Days later, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and coowner Brookfield <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-westfield-mall-goes-bust-2023-6">gave the San Francisco City Centre back to their lenders</a> after the exit of retailers left the mall just over <a href="https://abc7news.com/westfield-mall-san-francisco-sf-union-square-nordstrom-closure/13373746/" target="_blank">half occupied</a>. The capitulation of some of real estate's most sophisticated players after tech job cuts and a growing permanence of remote work is a dark omen for the city's downtown. Real-estate defaults have been long expected, but not all at once: Many investors thought they'd trickle in as owners tap options to extend the maturities of their loans, which could kick their losses down the road. What's more troublesome, the loss of workers, the business travelers they attracted, and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/san-franciscos-union-square-store-closures-since-2020-2023-5">stores where they shopped</a> is creating a vicious cycle that won't be disrupted any time soon, said Manus Clancy, a senior managing director at Trepp, which tracks corporate and commercial real-estate debt. "San Francisco is in a sinkhole that's growing bigger by the day," Clancy, who is based in New York, told Insider. "Store closings, crime, and other quality-of-life issues are leading to an epidemic of negative headlines that are keeping tourists and workers away. It will probably get worse before it gets better." A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-layoffs-google-microsoft-salesforce-amazon-cut-thousands-employees-2023-1">wave of downsizing by big tech companies</a> including Snap, Meta, and Salesforce helped inflate the city's office vacancy rate to nearly 30% last quarter, up from less than 5% three years earlier, according to CBRE. The workers who are still employed have resisted their long commutes, which are common in the city that sits on a peninsula, Placer.ai data show. Last quarter, just 36% of workers going to San Francisco offices were making commutes of more than 5 miles, the smallest percentage of long commuters making their way back to cubicles in Boston, Chicago, Houston, and New York, the data shows. But for workers living closer to their San Francisco offices, the percentage making a daily commute is relatively high. <h2>The good side of vacancies: room for startups</h2>Some of those workers are likely to belong to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-generative-ai-san-francisco-hayes-silicon-cerebral-valley-2023-1">explosion of generative-AI startups in San Francisco</a>, with some 22% of them concentrated in the area. The founders of Krea, which creates models for high-grade image generation and asset-management services, last year packed their bags in Miami and headed to San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood, which isn't far from Union Square and is turning into a haven for companies like theirs. But with startups being small by nature, they're not offsetting the population drain. The flight from the city has reduced the population by more than 65,000 people from April 2020 to July 2022, according to the Census Bureau. With housing demand down, <a href="https://www.redfin.com/city/17151/CA/San-Francisco/housing-market" target="_blank">median home prices inflated during the pandemic have dropped nearly 18%</a> in the year through April, nearly triple the declines in Manhattan. As for rentals, the landlord Equity Residential has had "limited pricing power" in the downtown market and is making concessions to attract tenants, the company's chief operating officer said on an earnings call in April. <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=ee913ecfb25f7dbfb9837fa9d5f4f6b6bd22ab13aafa5fbad7af4278384dfa6a&amp;postID=6489d2e49c8bef13c30f3735&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fjeffberg32%2F" target="_blank">Jeff Berg, a real-estate investor</a> who had been buying and renting out small apartment buildings since 2002, said he's given up on the city, citing <a href="https://bornstein.law/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SFRentRegistryGuide.pdf" target="_blank">burdensome regulation</a>. "I have unloaded all of my San Francisco rental properties in the past year and just moved my family out for good," Berg told Insider via LinkedIn. "After 23 years, we're moving on with our lives. Whatever is going on in San Francisco, we are not interested in being part of that any longer." <h2>Fear of crime taints the city</h2>Crime, or the fear of it, often creeps into conversations about San Francisco, too. Thomas Baltimore, the CEO of Park Hotels &amp; Resorts, which gave up the Union Square hotels last week, said in a statement that "street conditions" were adding to the burden of the properties, in addition to record-high office vacancies. Some neighborhoods — including the <a href="https://www.sanfranciscodowntown.com/Tenderloin/Map" target="_blank">Tenderloin District</a>, which is adjacent to Union Square and the Westfield Mall — have seen more homicides this year, though citywide, <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-crime-rate-bob-lee-sf-violent-map/13091172/" target="_blank">San Francisco's murder rate is near the bottom of major cities</a>, according to ABC 7. Crime hasn't seemed to stop tourists, with their numbers climbing 29% last year to 21.9 million and likely to reach 23.9 million this year, according to the <a href="https://www.sftravel.com/media/press-release/san-francisco-travel-association-announces-2022-results-2023-forecast" target="_blank">San Francisco Travel Association</a>. Nonetheless, signs of crime in San Francisco are pervasive. The number of assault cases and robberies is up, even as rapes have declined, <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-crime-rate-bob-lee-sf-violent-map/13091172/" target="_blank">ABC 7 recently found</a>. And social-media posts, including one from Elon Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1643545966811975680" target="_blank">decrying "horrific" violent crime</a> after the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cash-app-bob-lee-dated-suspect-nima-momeni-ex-2023-5">stabbing death of the tech executive Bob Lee</a> in April, magnify the fear. A rash of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/san-francisco-whole-foods-crime-economy.html" target="_blank">crimes became so pervasive at a Whole Foods market</a> in the Mid-Market district — also near Union Square — that managers simply closed the location in April after opening last year. According to The New York Times, 568 emergency calls originated from the store over a 13-month period, many of them about violence and drug use. One commercial real-estate broker who declined to be named told Insider that on a recent family trip to the city, his tour guide said that the Tenderloin had become so sketchy that policemen were paid more to walk the beat. People experiencing homelessness have long congregated in the Tenderloin neighborhood, while the number of unhoused people across the Bay Area has ballooned 35% since 2019 to 38,000, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/the-ongoing-crisis-of-homelessness-in-the-bay-area-whats-working-whats-not" target="_blank">McKinsey &amp; Co. found.</a> Frank Scavone, a veteran commercial real-estate-debt investor who is now managing partner of Third Point Real Estate Strategies, was reflective about why workers weren't coming back but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/third-point-real-estate-manager-preps-for-distressed-office-debt-2023-6">more certain of the outcome — falling building values.</a> "I ask, what's the driver" of the San Francisco office vacancies, Scavone told Insider. "Is it that no one feels safe in downtown San Francisco? Is it because the ground-level merchants and the amenities associated with being downtown have evaporated because of crime?" He continued: "Is it because downtown San Francisco is somewhat of a difficult commute from suburbs in Marin County or the East Bay?" "Collectively these issues set the stage for workers saying, 'We don't want to be there because we don't feel safe, or it's no longer an enjoyable place to work, or because we feel we're entitled to a different workweek design,'" he said.

Empty offices, abandoned malls, concerns over crime: Why San Francisco, the Golden City, is losing its luster

<ul class="summary-list"><li>California's minimum wage for workers at limited-service restaurants is going up to $20 an hour in April.</li><li>Restaurants plan to raise prices to offset the labor costs, but the amount will vary considerably.</li></ul>Fast-food workers in California are getting higher paychecks.From April 1, limited-service restaurant workers in the Golden State who work for chains with more than 60 locations nationwide will get a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-fast-food-minimum-wage-20-value-restaurants-diners-groceries-2024-2">minimum wage of $20</a> an hour under AB 1228, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.It's not just a one-off pay rise – a fast-food council will be able to increase the minimum wage by up to 3.5% a year, depending on inflation.The change is a big one, and it could have ripples across not just California, but the whole of the US fast food sector. Here's what might happen.<h2>Burgers, tacos, and pizzas will get more expensive</h2>Diners should expect to pay more as fast-food restaurants put menu prices up to offset higher wages. Chains including McDonald's, Chipotle, and Jack in the Box have all said they'll increase prices."I would expect the vast, vast majority of limited-service restaurants to raise prices in California," Sharon Zackfia, an analyst at William Blair, told Business Insider.Restaurant analysts told BI that they expect prices could go up anywhere between the mid-single-digits and the low-double-digits."Unfortunately the consumer's going to have to bear it," Andy Barish, an analyst at Jefferies, said.Diners have already faced <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-taco-bell-shake-shack-smaller-price-increases-restaurant-2024-2024-2">dramatic price increases</a> during the pandemic. Restaurants typically raise prices by around 2% a year, but some put prices up by more than 10% in 2022 amid <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/labor-shortage-pennsylvania-restaurant-raised-menu-prices-employment-food-chicken-2021-9">soaring labor and commodity inflation</a>, Sara Senatore, a Bank of America analyst, said.<h2>The impacts will vary between restaurants</h2>Price increases will vary by chain, location, and franchisee. Smaller chains, or ones that operate mainly in California, may have bigger price increases because they don't have as many restaurants outside the state to absorb the impact."This is an opportunity for us to gain share, because this is an impact that's going to hit all of our competitors," McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors in October. "We believe we're in a better position than our competitors to weather this."For fast-food chains paying workers the state's current minimum wage — $16 as of January — the new $20 wage represents a hefty 25% bump in labor costs. But restaurants already paying workers higher wages will feel less of an impact from the new legislation.Fast-food chains in bustling urban areas are likely to already pay considerably above California's $16-an-hour minimum to stay competitive, meaning suburban restaurants may feel the impact of the legislation more. And some cities and counties in California have minimum wages of <a target="_blank" href="https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/inventory-of-us-city-and-county-minimum-wage-ordinances/#s-2">$18 an hour and higher</a>, anyway.It's not just workers currently earning less than $20 an hour who'll get a pay rise: some supervisory workers will be given raises to ensure they're still getting more than the restaurant's lowest-paid workers.<h2>People might eat less fast food</h2>As fast food becomes more expensive, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-fast-food-minimum-wage-20-value-restaurants-diners-groceries-2024-2">people could dine out less</a> or place smaller orders.Jon Tower, an analyst at Citi, said the higher prices could be hard for some diners to accept. "There's a very good chance that this just translates into weaker footfall" and more people choosing to cook at home instead, he said."It's really tough to tell where consumers are going to trade," Barish said.Zackfia pointed out there'll be less of a price difference between limited-service and full-service restaurants.<h2>Low-paid retail workers can expect a raise</h2>The $20 minimum wage only applies to limited-service restaurant workers at chains with at least 60 locations.However, higher wages at McDonald's, Subway, and Burger King will likely prompt other employers to offer higher pay so they can compete for labor.If limited-service restaurants are raising their wages, "everybody is going to have to adopt because it's a free market," Danilo Gargiulo, a Bernstein analyst, said. "So at the end of the day, everybody will have to do it."This could include workers at independent restaurants, full-service restaurants, and grocery stores.As other restaurants raise their wages, they may also have to adjust their menu prices.The Cheesecake Factory, for example, told investors in November that the legislation could have a "ripple effect" on wages. The Cheesecake Factory, in response, may have to raise its prices, too, CFO Matt Clark noted.<h2>People will have more money to dine out</h2>As fast-food workers' wages increase, they'll actually have more disposable income to spend dining out."Given how large the industry is with respect to employment in California, a good chunk of the consumer base is actually going to be getting a raise," Tower said. Fast-food restaurants "might end up seeing slightly higher demand," he said.Almost 550,000 people worked as cooks or counter workers in California's fast-food industry as of May 2022, according to data from the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_ca.htm#35-0000">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>. It's unclear how many of these work for companies that will be covered by AB 1228.<h2>Expect more value deals and order kiosks</h2>Tower said he expected fast-food chains to focus on their value deals in California to attract customers amid higher menu prices.Zackfia said she thought <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-digital-order-kiosks-sales-restaurant-brands-international-food-2023-11?r=US&amp;IR=T">digital order kiosks</a>, which restaurants are rolling out to save on labor costs and improve order accuracy, would spread "even more quickly" in California.Are you a fast-food worker excited about the new minimum wage? Or a franchisee wondering how it will affect your business? Email this reporter at gdean@insider.com.

Here's what might happen after California raises fast-food wages to $20, from higher burger and pizza prices to better wages for retail workers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Modular, or factory-built, housing could help boost efficiency and cut costs for homebuilding. </li><li>But many modular construction companies have failed in recent years.</li></ul>Factory-built housing is increasingly being hailed as a solution to the housing shortage and affordability crisis.But the world of modular housing, which includes multi-unit apartment buildings and conventional-looking houses, is littered with companies that have gone bust. One of these was Katerra, a SoftBank-backed firm that sought to be a one-stop shop for factory-made buildings. After investors poured billions of dollars into the much-hyped company, it <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-backed-katerra-files-for-chapter-11-11623060434">filed for bankruptcy</a> in 2021.Mark Erlich, a former officer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and the author of "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p087332">The Way We Build: Restoring Dignity to Construction Work</a>," chalks many of the failures up to inexperience with the construction industry. Investors from outside the industry have come in with ambitious plans to disrupt it but little of the expertise necessary to find and fill a niche in the market."Katerra was started by guys from Silicon Valley who were going to show the stupid construction industry what a bunch of dinosaurs they were," Erlich said. That "arrogance" built the foundation for their demise.There are a slew of other examples of similar failures in the US and around the world, including the California startup Veev, which <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/problems-with-prefabricated-homes-why-lennar-bought-veev-2024-1">ran out of money late last year</a>, and the UK company Urban Splash's modular business, named <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/urban-splash-cuts-a-quarter-of-staff-after-modular-collapse/5125788.article">House,</a> which collapsed in 2022. Business Insider has reported that the trendy Las Vegas tiny-home startup <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boxabl-tiny-home-casita-production-governance-galiano-paolo-tiramani-spending-2023-2">Boxabl is rapidly losing money</a>.Policymakers and housing advocates are looking for all kinds of potential solutions to the housing crisis. They point out that home-building productivity hasn't improved much in decades. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/comparing-costs-manufactured-and-site-built-housing">Constructing homes in factories</a> can be more efficient and less costly than traditional construction. While workers prepare the foundation on-site, the home can simultaneously be constructed in a factory without weather and other interruptions slowing down the process."Factory productivity — the ways that we build cars, airplanes, ships, too, nowadays — has increased a lot in the last 60 years or so. And so being able to unlock that productivity game in the residential space can and should bring costs back down," said Andrew Justus, a housing-policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank.But layers of restrictive government regulations, including zoning laws and building codes, often stand in the way of more factory-made homes. Justus said the complex web of local and state regulations could make it impossible for modular-home companies to build the economies of scale they need to bring down costs and turn a profit.Erlich said these restrictive policies often reflected the lingering perception that factory-built homes are inferior to traditional housing. There's a stigma around trailers or mobile homes, which the federal government defines as manufactured housing built before 1976. He argued the modern versions of this housing were still widely considered unappealing.The federal government has made some efforts to cut red tape for factory-built housing. The Biden administration proposed loosening the Department of Housing and Urban Development <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.hud.gov/press/press_releases_media_advisories/hud_no_22_133">regulations on manufactured housing</a> to increase the supply, including by legalizing up to three units per factory-built structure. But cities and states would need to liberalize their own regulations to pave the way for more of these homes.<h2>Obstacles for the modular-housing industry</h2>Erlich said the policy landscape wasn't the most significant obstacle for the industry. More important, he argued, was the lack of consistent demand for modular buildings, the high costs of transporting a finished product to the building site, and the decentralized nature of construction. While the timeline for modular construction is consistently compressed, transportation and other costs can mean it isn't cheaper than building on-site.Investors aren't convinced there's sufficient and consistent demand for modular housing in most markets. Modular construction is best for buildings that have repeated components, such as a hotel with hundreds of identical rooms, a dorm building, or a multi-family apartment building with identical units."If you have to adjust for design details, at that point, it just becomes prohibitively expensive, and you're much better off to build it on-site," Erlich said.Even in the right market, there aren't many willing investors within the construction industry. This is partly because the sector is so decentralized: Construction managers outsource much of the work, and subcontractors generally don't have the capital."You don't have a General Motors, you don't have a Tesla, you don't have somebody who's willing to spend 10 years before they make a lot of money," Erlich said.<h2>Failures and successes</h2>In addition to the failed companies, some messy major modular projects have also drawn attention to the industry's problems. A 32-story <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/modular-building-believed-to-be-worlds-tallest-makes-debut-in-brooklyn-1479261926?mod=article_inline">modular apartment building in Brooklyn</a> took four years to construct after legal disputes and other delays.In Manhattan, a project that was supposed to become the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-supertall-modular-hotel-is-going-up-in-manhattan-if-the-rooms-ever-leave-brooklyn-11623153600">tallest modular hotel in the world</a> was scheduled to be finished in late 2020. But the pandemic and a shortage of funding paralyzed construction, while all 168 fully prefabricated and furnished hotel rooms sit on a dock in Brooklyn. In late December 2023, the hotel's lender, Avana Capital, filed a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pincusco.com/33m-pre-foreclosure-at-worlds-tallest-modular-hotel-dev-site-in-nomad/?lp_txn_id=305276">$33 million pre-foreclosure action</a> in Manhattan court.But some have found a way to succeed in the space. Erlich said they tended to be run by people with deep experience in the construction industry. A newer example is Factory OS, a firm in the San Francisco Bay Area created by established developers in partnership with the region's carpenters union that's delivering on the area's demand for factory-built affordable housing while also doing some on-site construction."They started with a higher degree of expertise and experience in the housing market," Erlich said of Factory OS. "They knew where the demand was and how they could satisfy it."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/realestate/prefabricated-modular-apartments.html">Factory OS</a>'s cofounder told The New York Times it had plans to expand its reach in California but appreciated the localized nature of the construction industry and wasn't looking to open factories across the country. And that approach could be the key to its success.Do you work in the modular-housing industry? Reach out to this reporter at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:erelman@businessinsider.com">erelman@businessinsider.com</a>.

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