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HANDLING HARDSHIP: DATA ON ECONOMIC INSECURITY AMONG AMAZON WAREHOUSE
WORKERS  
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Sanjay Pinto, Beth Gutelius
May 15, 2024
Center for Urban Economic Development - University of Illinois,
Chicago [[link removed]]

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_ Our data indicate that roughly half of Amazon’s frontline
warehouse workers are struggling with food and housing insecurity and
being able to pay their bills. That’s not what economic security
looks like. _

, Center For Urban Economic Development, UIC

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONTACT: [email protected]

_(Chicago, IL__)_ – Today, the Center for Urban Economic
Development (CUED) at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)
released a new REPORT
[[link removed]] detailing
the results of a survey of 1,484 Amazon workers across 451 facilities
in 42 states—the largest nationwide study of Amazon workers to date.
The report shows that roughly half of Amazon’s frontline warehouse
workers are struggling with food and housing insecurity and being able
to pay their bills, with one-third relying on different kinds of
public assistance programs.

_“This research indicates just how far the goalposts have shifted.
It used to be the case that big, leading firms in the economy provided
a path to the middle class and relative economic security,” _SAID
DR. SANJAY PINTO, SENIOR FELLOW AT CUED AND CO-AUTHOR OF THE
REPORT._ “Our data indicate that roughly half of Amazon’s
frontline warehouse workers are struggling with food and housing
insecurity and being able to pay their bills. That’s not what
economic security looks like.”_

_“The findings we report are the first we know of to show an
association between the company’s health and safety issues and
experiences of economic insecurity among its workforce,” _SAID DR.
BETH GUTELIUS, RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT CUED AND CO-AUTHOR OF THE
REPORT._ “Workers having to take unpaid time off due to pain or
exhaustion are far more likely to experience food and housing
insecurity, and difficulty paying their bills.”_

Key findings include:

* 53% OF WORKERS EXPERIENCED ONE OR MORE FORMS OF FOOD
INSECURITY in the previous three months.
* 48% OF WORKERS EXPERIENCED ONE OR MORE FORMS OF HOUSING
INSECURITY in the previous three months.
* MORE THAN HALF (56%) HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO PAY ALL THEIR
BILLS without a remaining balance in the previous three months.
* ONE-THIRD OF WORKERS (33%) HAVE USED ONE OR MORE PUBLICLY FUNDED
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS, including 23% who have used the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
* TAKING TIME OFF DUE TO THE HEALTH IMPACTS OF WORKING AT AMAZON IS
LINKED WITH GREATER ECONOMIC INSECURITY. For example, 60% of those
taking unpaid time off due to pain or exhaustion from working at
Amazon report one or more forms of food insecurity, versus 36% of
those who have not taken time off.

Today’s report reflects findings of the second part of this worker
survey; the first part of the survey and its findings were released in
a report
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fall, which found:

* 41% OF WORKERS REPORT BEING INJURED while working at an Amazon
warehouse; 51% at the company for more than three years have been
injured.
* 69% HAVE HAD TO TAKE UNPAID TIME OFF due to pain or exhaustion
from working at the company in the past month; 34% have had to do so
three or more times.
* 41% ALWAYS/MOST OF THE TIME FEEL A SENSE OF PRESSURE TO WORK
FASTER, and another 30% sometimes do.

_“The hourly pay at Amazon is not enough for the backbreaking work
... For the hard work we do and the money Amazon makes, every
associate should make a livable wage,”_ said LINDA HOWARD, who has
worked at Amazon for 6 years in the ATL6 facility outside of Atlanta.

_“Many Amazon associates cannot pay their bills, they can’t afford
proper housing — some of my coworkers have been forced out of their
homes. We are stuck in a nightmare: Living in an economy that puts no
cap on worker exploitation, while our wages can’t keep up with the
increase in our cost of living. This cycle has to stop.”_

While the researchers’ previous report
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the relationship between invasive surveillance and high injury rates
at Amazon warehouse, this report connects Amazon’s worker injury
crisis to the economic precarity they face. The report
concludes: _“The higher levels of economic insecurity reported by
workers having to take unpaid time off from work due to pain or
exhaustion also point to a worrying relationship between financial
strain and the injury toll documented in our previous report.”_

_“The economic impact of taking unpaid time off is a hidden cost of
working for Amazon that, until now, has not been accounted for fully
in discussions about compensation at the company. As the previous
report suggested, the magnitude of the health toll reported by Amazon
warehouse workers should raise concerns both about take-home pay in
the immediate term and potential long-term effects on well-being,
medical costs, and future employment.”_

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT.
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_DR. SANJAY PINTO, is a senior fellow at CUED and co-author of the
report. DR. BETH GUTELIUS, is research director at CUED and co-author
of the report._

_Since 1978, the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) has
conducted research on a broad range of issues shaping the
trajectories of local and regional economies. CUED's mission is to
improve development outcomes and expand economic opportunity, and
we strive to achieve our mission in three principal ways. First, CUED
conducts original research on employment, economic restructuring,
community development, and public policy. Second, CUED works in
partnership with community-based organizations, labor unions,
advocacy coalitions, state and local governments, and policy think
tanks to devise development strategies. Such strategies require
research on job access, job quality, business
strategies and outcomes, the role of public policy, and the impacts of
development on neighborhoods. Third, through specially constructed
models of technical assistance to project partners, CUED enters into
long-term relationships with organizations to conduct
strategic research, to evaluate community and workforce development
programs and strategies, and to translate lessons from practice into
public policy._

_CUED is a unit of the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs 
[[link removed]]at the University of Illinois at
Chicago [[link removed]]._

* Amazon
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* employees
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* Economic security
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* health
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