Alana Semuels
I Delivered Packages for Amazon and It Was a Nightmare
Amazon Flex allows drivers to get paid to deliver packages from their own vehicles. But is it a good deal for workers?
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Julio Cortez / AP Why Amazon Pays Some of Its Workers to Quit
The company’s unusual offer—to give employees up to $5,000 for leaving—may actually be a way to get them to stay longer.
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Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP / Getty When Divorce Is an Opportunity
In Sweden, progressive gender dynamics can lead immigrant women to leave their husbands and become independent.
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Kevork Djansezian / Getty What Amazon Does to Poor Cities
The debate over Amazon’s HQ2 obscures the company’s rapid expansion of warehouses in low-income areas.
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Spencer Platt / Getty Organized Labor’s Growing Class Divide
Why have high-profile organizing campaigns succeeded for white-collar workers and failed for blue-collar workers?
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harpazo_hope / Getty The Internet Is Enabling a New Kind of Poorly Paid Hell
For some Americans, sub-minimum-wage online tasks are the only work available.
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Andrew Kelly / Reuters Pushing Out Immigrants Isn't About the Economy
Donald Trump's widely reported 'shithole' remark dismantles the economic argument against foreigners.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic The Places That May Never Recover From the Recession
The Rust Belt isn’t the only region left behind by the economic recovery. The suburbs of the American west are struggling, too.
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Damian Dovarganes / AP Low-Wage Workers Aren’t Getting Justice for Sexual Harassment
Despite the #MeToo movement, poor women often find that speaking out against abuse at work is too costly.
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Steve Scott Robots Will Transform Fast Food
That might not be a bad thing.
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Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty America’s Lost Einsteins
Millions of children from poor families who excel in math and science rarely live up to their potential—and that hurts everyone.
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Christina Chung The Never-Ending Foreclosure
How can the country survive the next economic crash if millions of families still haven't recovered from the last one?
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Spencer Platt / Getty Poor Girls Are Leaving Their Brothers Behind
As a college education becomes increasingly important in today’s economy, it’s girls, not boys, who are succeeding in school. For kids from poor families, that can make the difference between social mobility and a lifetime of poverty.
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Koi Sasahara / AP Why Aren’t U.S. Cars Popular in Japan?
American companies say protectionist policies keep them out. The reality is more complicated.
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Seth Wenig / AP Could a Tax Fix the Gig Economy?
A group in New York is calling for a fee on all gig-economy transactions in order to provide workers with benefits like paid sick leave.
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Carlos Barria / Reuters The GOP Targets America’s Most Loved and Hated Tax Break
Liberal groups wanted to get rid of the mortgage-interest deduction. But not in the way that congressional Republicans are doing it.
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Bebeto Matthews / AP John Grisham Skewers the For-Profit Law-School Industry
The author discusses his latest book, The Rooster Bar, which was inspired by a 2014 article in The Atlantic, “The Law-School Scam.”
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Elsa / Getty How My Father (Maybe) Started the Timeless ‘Beat L.A.!’ Chant
Tracing the origins of a defining moment in sports history can be daunting, especially when your own family steadfastly insists on what happened.
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Bjorn Larsson Rosval / Reuters What If Getting Laid Off Wasn't Something to Be Afraid Of?
In Sweden, employers pay into private funds that retrain workers who lose their jobs. The model makes the whole economy more dynamic.
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Associated Press The Barriers Stopping Poor People From Moving to Better Jobs
Highly educated people still relocate for work, but exorbitant housing costs in the best-paying cities make it difficult for anyone else to do so.
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Adam Beam / AP The Myth That ‘Business’ Hated Obama’s Clean Power Plan
“It was really just a small minority of businesses that were against it.”
