Silicon Valley is experiencing a crisis of underemployment.
San Jose and other Silicon Valley cities have set national examples by raising their minimum wages. But a higher wage is not enough to cover skyrocketing living costs if you can only get a few hours of work.
Big corporations in low-wage industries are using abusive work schedules to shift costs onto their employees. Instead of creating full-time jobs, companies are hiring more workers — but only giving them part-time hours.
In the past 10 years, the number of hourly workers who do not have full-time work at their primary job has mushroomed. Today, roughly 64,000 workers — 43% of hourly wage earners — have part-time or variable schedules at their main job.
By keeping workers part-time, unscrupulous companies avoid providing critical benefits like health insurance and retirements plans. And nationally, part-timers are typically paid a third less per hour than full-time employees.
Measure E will help stop this misbehavior. It says that before hiring extra part-time employees, businesses have to offer those hours to current workers who are qualified to do the job.
Learn more about how Measure E works