The Worker Institute brings together researchers, educators and students with practitioners in labor, business and policymaking to address issues related to confronting systemic inequality and building a fair economy, robust democracy and just society. We will share opinion, analysis, research, data, insights and training from our faculty and staff.
Precarious Work
Assessing the Impact of Prevailing Wage Benefits on Workers, Contractors, and the New York City Economy
This research report illustrates how PW laws might make union construction labor more cost effective than non-union construction labor for PW jobs.
Unpaid Care Work and Its Impact on New Yorkers' Paid Employment
To explore current patterns of unpaid caregiving and its impact on New Yorkers’ paid employment, the Worker Institute has published a policy brief sharing relevant findings from the 2022 Empire State Poll, carried out by the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR).
New York's food delivery bicyclists and drivers demand more workplace rights
CBS News
This piece mentions a survey out of the ILR School and the advocacy group Los Deliveristas Unidos finding that two-thirds of the surveyed delivery drivers work at least six days a week and average just over $12 per hour, including tips.
42% of food delivery workers say they've been underpaid, according to ILR's Worker Institute and the Workers Justice Project's study cited by The Wall Street Journal in wake of FTC warning to companies about unfair practices.
Chuck Schumer Aims to Deliver Infrastructure Dollars to Help Food Couriers
The City
Nearly half said they’ve been in a crash while doing a delivery, according to the survey done by the Workers Justice Project and the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Fed up by pandemic, US food workers launch rare strikes
AP News
After decades of watching companies chip away at pay and benefits, food workers sense that they have a rare upper hand in the wake of the pandemic, says Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director of The Worker Institute at ILR Cornell.
Study explores ‘harrowing’ safety risks mobile app-based delivery workers face
From December through April, researchers from Los Deliveristas Unidos, the Worker’s Justice Project and The Worker Institute at Cornell University surveyed 500 adult couriers from around the city. They found that 49% of the respondents had experienced a crash or some other type of incident.
New York Passes Sweeping Bills to Improve Conditions for Delivery Workers
The New York Times
A survey of 500 app food delivery workers by the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Workers Justice Project found that 42 percent of workers had experienced being underpaid or not paid at all.
A Search for the Delivery Worker in a Viral Hurricane Ida Video
The New Yorker
The Worker’s Justice Project and researchers from Cornell University, the group released a report on the working conditions in the delivery industry in New York, based in part on a survey of five hundred app delivery workers.
while DoorDash claims Manhattan workers make $33 per hour, including tips, when you factor in expenses, delivery workers have a base pay of $7.87 per hour, according to a recent study of app-based workers conducted by the Cornell Worker Institute and the Worker’s Justice Project.
NYC Food Delivery Workers Face Paltry Pay and High Risks, Analysis Shows
The City
Even with tips, average pay amounted to $12.21 an hour, the report determined. Organizers from the worker advocacy group that conducted the survey along with the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations hope that their findings will prompt government action.
First of its kind industry report shows New York City’s App-based delivery workers experience harsh working conditions
Los Deliveristas / Worker's Justice Project and Cornell ILR’s Worker Institute released a new report titled, “Essential but Unprotected: App-based Food Couriers in New York City.” The report examines the harsh and unregulated working conditions of app-based delivery workers engaged by digital platforms.
New York Delivery Drivers Face Low Pay Even as Risks Mount
Bloomberg
fter accounting for expenses like electric bikes and batteries, the median hourly wage for delivery workers in New York City is $7.94, excluding tips, according to a study conducted by advocacy group Worker’s Justice Project in partnership with Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
A strike at Nabisco is testing the power of unions in the pandemic
Quartz
“Workers have more power to demand more rights, and unions have more power to demand more from employers like Nabisco,” says Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director at The Worker Institute at Cornell University.
NYC passes new protections for delivery app workers
Marketplace
Customers are finally realizing that ordering on apps has an impact, “that there’s actually a cost for my cheap food, that there’s actually a cost for my 24-hour delivery,” said Patricia Campos-Medina at Cornell’s Worker Institute. “And workers realized that they had the power to demand more.”
Today’s special: Angry diners. What’s a restaurant to do?
The Christian Science Monitor
“The fundamental shift and reckoning of the hospitality industry is happening because the pandemic actually changed the perception of those jobs” to something more valued and necessary, says Patricia Campos-Medina, a labor expert at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
Laundry workers essential in pandemic but shut out from benefits
A report released this week on the working conditions of retail laundry workers found that many lack knowledge of their workplace rights and have been victims of wage theft, discrimination and unsafe working conditions.
Washing for Dignity and Safety on the Job: Workers in the NJ Retail Laundromat Industry
A new report by the Laundry Workers Center and the Cornell ILR Worker Institute examines the work and socio-economic conditions of workers in the retail laundromat industry in New Jersey.
‘WE ALL QUIT’: How America’s Workers Are Taking Back Their Power
VICE News
"It's an act of protest against abuses and exploitative conditions," said Patricia Campos Medina, executive director of the Worker's Institute at Cornell University. "It’s a sense of empowerment that workers don’t have to tolerate that kind of abuse."
Worker Institute hosts an international forum on app-based work
The two-day forum, titled "Platform-Workers Forum: Global Perspectives on Organizing and Policy” was translated simultaneously into English, Spanish, and Hindi. The event was attended by more than 150 participants from 34 countries from across the globe.
Fair and Safe Return to Work: Protecting Workers and Communities during Reopening
On Thursday, August 6, 2020, the Worker Institute at the ILR school and the Restaurant Opportunity Centers of New York hosted a webinar focused on reopening the economy and the workplace.
Strategies for a Worker-Centered Reopening and Recovery
On July 1st the Worker Institute at Cornell University, ILR School convened an online webinar, Strategies for a Worker-Centered Reopening and Recovery, moderated by Juan González, Co-Host, DEMOCRACY NOW!
Panel with Policy Makers on Gig Economy held in Albany
The panel discussion titled "Policy Strategies for Protecting Workers in the New Economy" was held on Wednesday, May 15th in the Legislative Office Building, Albany Room Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY.
TS Bambii, a sex worker representative from VOCAL-NY and DecrimNY, spoke about the economic necessity of sex work, and its inherent devaluation and criminalization at the panel “Labor Rights for Marginalized Workers,” hosted by the Worker Institute for Union Days.
On April 27th and l 28th, 2018 the Worker Institute at Cornell University hosted a conference titled, “Workers’ Rights in the Gig Economy: Policy and Organizing Responses to Precarious Work.
Responses by workers and their advocates to challenges in the gig economy will be explored in an April 27-28 conference organized by The Worker Institute at Cornell.
