Wanderlust

Tag: Labor

  • Sessions: Trump administration will defend religious freedoms

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday the Trump administration will not treat religious individuals as an “afterthought” and vowed that the Justice Department will get involved in more cases rega

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday the Trump administration will not treat religious individuals as an “afterthought” and vowed that the Justice Department will get involved in more cases regarding freedom of religion.

    Mr. Sessions’ remarks came at a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a conservative networking organization founded in 1981.

    “The threats to religious freedom are threats to our First Amendment right to freedom of speech,” Mr. Sessions told the group.

    In October, the Justice Department issued a directive to give religious organizations and individuals stronger protections to express their beliefs, even when they conflict with government regulations.

    The directive was criticized because it provided stronger protections for employers making hiring decisions based on their religious faith. Some claimed the directive would lead to discrimination against individuals whose sexual orientation clashed with their employers’ faith.

    The department directive came on the heels of the Trump administration announcing it would expand religious exemptions for employers who object to providing insurance coverage for birth control.

    Former Sen. Sam Brownback was confirmed in February as the United States’ ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Mr. Brownback is the first former politician and first Catholic to hold that position, which has existed through previous administrations.

    “The Trump administration understand the value of free religious expression,” Mr. Sessions told the crowd.

    The Justice Department has also become fairly active in defending religious liberty cases under the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the department filed court papers alleging that Georgia Gwinnett College violated the constitutional rights of a student who claimed he was told he couldn’t distribute fliers promoting his Christian faith in a campus open space. In its 26-page statement of interest, the department said the students’ right to free speech was violated.

    Mr. Sessions emphasized the link between freedom of speech and freedom of religion, two constitutional protections, in his speech Friday.

    “I would argue that free expression of religious views and values is doubly protected in the First Amendment,” he said.

  • Rideshare drivers mostly earning less than minimum wage: MIT report

    Motorists making some extra cash by hauling around Uber or Lyft customers are mostly earning less than minimum wage, and nearly a third of ride-hailing drivers are losing money behind the wheel, accor

    Motorists making some extra cash by hauling around Uber or Lyft customers are mostly earning less than minimum wage, and nearly a third of ride-hailing drivers are losing money behind the wheel, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    The median profit before taxes earned by ride-hailing drivers at either service is about $3.37, or less than half of the minimum wage in most states, researchers at MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research wrote in their newly published working paper, “Economics of Ride-Hailing: Driver Revenue, Expenses and Taxes.”

    Culled from interviews conducted with over 1,100 Uber and Lyft drivers, the analysis “provides one of the first detailed estimates of ride-hailing profit,” its authors wrote.

    The MIT researchers quizzed respondents with questions like how many miles they drive and the types of car they use, then factored in the costs of insurance, fuel, maintenance, repairs and depreciation to reach their figures.

    Seventy-four percent of drivers earn less than the minimum wage in their state, while 30 percent “are actually losing money once vehicle expenses are included,” the report said.

    “We were surprised by the numbers; they seemed pretty low,” co-author Stephen Zoepf, executive director of Stanford’s Center for Automotive Research, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

    Indeed, Mr. Zeopf said he plans to crunch the numbers with a different formula as his findings are questioned by both San Francisco-based companies, the newspaper reported Friday.

    “While the paper is certainly attention grabbing, its methodology and findings are deeply flawed. We’ve reached out to the paper’s authors to share our concerns and suggest ways we might work together to refine their approach,” Uber spokesperson Michael Amodeo said in a statement.

    “We have not yet reviewed this study in detail, but an initial review shows some questionable assumptions,” said Lyft.

    Uber and Lyft launched in 2009 and 2012, respectively, leaving a limited window for research into either of the nation’s two largest ride-hailing companies.

    Nonetheless, previous studies have suggested drivers receive significantly more than MIT’s researchers concluded. A 2015 study funded by Uber found that drivers overall in Denver, Detroit and Houston earned less than $13.25 an hour after expenses. More recently, a 2017 survey conducted by the RideShareGuy blog and cited by Uber in response to the MIT study reported average hourly earnings of $15.68.