At LAX, Uber Drivers Wait. And Wait. And Wait.

At LAX, Uber Drivers Wait. And Wait. And Wait.

Before the sun could rise over Los Angeles International Airport on a recent Tuesday, hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers had formed a queue nearby, stretching around the block. It was 5 a.m., and the waiting game was about to begin. In a few minutes, the line of cars would …

Read more

How Contracting Work Became a Race to the Bottom

How Contracting Work Became a Race to the Bottom

Ben Whelan is not the kind of carpenter to wax poetic about the joys of framing a wall or redoing a roof. Like a lot of men he knows, he started working in residential construction as a teenager because it was a reliable way to earn money. But he has …

Read more

Why Maids Keep Dying in Saudi Arabia

Why Maids Keep Dying in Saudi Arabia

Feith Shimila Murunga says her boss groped, beat and raped her. Mary Wanjiru Nyambura says she was thrown from a balcony. Winfridah Kwamboka never even made it back home. East African leaders and Saudi royals are among those profiting off a lucrative, deadly trade in domestic workers. By Abdi Latif …

Read more

How a Classic French Dish Is Squeezed by Lingering Inflation

How a Classic French Dish Is Squeezed by Lingering Inflation

At Le Bouillon Chartier in Paris, the recipe for a perfect beef Bourguignon involves beef, carrots, wine, butter and “coquillettes,” a tiny macaroni-shaped pasta. It is cooked for at least three hours. And it must be affordable, so the price cannot be more than 10 euros a dish. Since 1896, …

Read more

What You Should Know About Your Spouse’s Money

What You Should Know About Your Spouse’s Money

Here’s a pop quiz for married couples. Do you know your spouse’s salary? What about the balance of your partner’s 401(k) — and credit card? Bonus points if you can cite how much your husband or wife thinks you need to live comfortably in retirement, or even what age he …

Read more

Firings at FDA Decimated Teams Reviewing AI and Food Safety

Firings at FDA Decimated Teams Reviewing AI and Food Safety

In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration hired experts in surgical robots and pioneers in artificial intelligence. It scooped up food chemists, lab-safety monitors and diabetes specialists who helped make needle pricks and test strips relics of the past. Trying to keep up with breakneck advances in medical technology …

Read more

How a Hong Kong Artist Got Fired From McDonald’s

How a Hong Kong Artist Got Fired From McDonald’s

On a recent eight-hour shift at a McDonald’s in Hong Kong, Luke Ching, 52, wiped tables, cleared trays of half-eaten fries, emptied cups of soda and milk tea and lugged bulging trash bags to the dumpster. For him, the main goal of the part-time work was not making ends meet. …

Read more

As Off Broadway Crews Unionize, Workers See Hope, Producers Peril

As Off Broadway Crews Unionize, Workers See Hope, Producers Peril

A unionization wave sweeping across Off Broadway is poised to reshape the economics of theater-making in New York — for workers as well as producers. Striking stage crews have idled the nonprofit Atlantic Theater Company — the birthplace of the musicals “Spring Awakening,” “The Band’s Visit” and “Kimberly Akimbo,” which …

Read more