🎉 Sued for (lack of) pay transparency? 💰

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Read time: 3.5 minutes

Good Afternoon Party People! 🎉

Death to The Sphere?!

The Las Vegas Sphere recently reported a $98.4M loss. And its’ CFO just resigned…trouble in paradise.

PARTY PLAN 🎉

💰 Sued for (lack of) pay transparency?

🤖 LinkedIn launches more AI tools

🍹 Fake happy hours (and free Range Rovers…sorta)

And, of course, MEMES!

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PAY

Sued For (Lack Of) Pay Transparency

More and more states have started to roll out pay transparency laws. Some states even require companies to advertise pay ranges and benefits info on job postings.

One of these states with such requirements is the state of Washington. And some companies haven’t been playing by the rules.

Adidas, Home Depot, Albertsons, Burberry, Qdoba, and Marriott are among the companies being sued in a batch of class action suits filed in Washington State last week.

Each case could potentially cover hundreds of applicants, according to Washington’s law requiring companies to advertise pay ranges and benefits information. This is the first major case of its kind, so companies that operate in states with pay transparency laws will be paying close attention to the precedence this sets.

Job applicants will need to show they suffered any injury or damages by applying for a job post without salary information. Some attorneys are saying that this group of job seekers may not have standing to bring the lawsuits, saying they’re just “trolling” the internet for noncompliant listings.

The Washington statute lets plaintiffs recover actual damages, or $5,000, whichever is greater. So in theory, someone could find a job on Indeed, notice that there isn’t any information about pay or benefits, submit an application, and potentially be owed $5k plus legal fees (new challenge unlocked).

Timothy Emery, another Seattle attorney representing the plaintiffs, had this to say, “Employers save big by hiding pay information from their workers. I suppose it’s no surprise that many continue to thumb their nose at the Equal Pay Act—they have one goal: to maximize shareholder profits.”

We hope the plaintiffs at least get what they deserve (free Qdoba burritos for a year).

Read more here.

AI

LinkedIn Launches More AI Tools

LinkedIn recently crossed the 1 billion user threshold (1 user for every dollar that T-Swift has).

To celebrate, they’re giving some premium users access to more AI tools that promise to “elevate your career.”

The tools are designed to suggest good candidates to hiring managers and also sum up job posts and present them to job seekers.

It can also read posts on the main feed and summarize the main idea with one click, including the comments (will it keep the cringe?). Additionally, LinkedIn will be launching an AI-powered profile optimizer based on your career experiences.

Time will tell if these features are helpful.

Read more on LinkedIn’s new AI tools here.

INTERESTING

Fake Happy Hours and Free Range Rovers

Buckle up, folks…this is a wild one.

Amazon hosts a bimonthly event called “Escape Velocity” for its new executives. The event often includes speakers like Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy. It also includes expensive catering and drinks, paid for by the company.

But the company noticed something odd between March 2021 and May 2022; the events had moved online due to COVID, but the bills kept coming in… $243,000 to a Seattle catering company, $51,000 in UberEats vouchers, and $55,000 for “fake happy hours” at a local Seattle restaurant.

*Knock knock*

“THIS IS THE FBI, OPEN UP”

After the recipient companies reported no record of the Amazon employee’s spending, a full investigation was launched.

But wait, there’s more…

The total expenses exceeded $400k and included a Land Rover, three Chanel bags, and more.

Whoops.

When Amazon’s ethics teams caught on in June of 2022, the employee claimed the expenses were legitimate, but later confessed when presented with evidence.

She was fired after 5 years with the company. The FBI and DOJ are continuing to investigate, but the employee hasn’t been charged yet.

Not sure how you think you can get away with that.

Guess she didn’t have enough…escape velocity.

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