Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said that companies should often categorize gig workers as employees. In addition to companies being successful, "we also want to make sure that success trickles down to the worker," Walsh said.

Minor felony records are derailing career prospects for tens of millions of Americans while also depriving employers of in-demand talent, write Eaton CEO Craig Arnold and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who chair the Second Chance Business Coalition. "Our goal is to encourage the nation's largest employers to give more people with criminal backgrounds a second chance at the dignity of a good job and a better life for themselves and their families," they write.

Amazon will increase pay for more than 500,000 hourly workers in the US by between 50 cents and $3 per hour starting next month, while keeping its minimum hourly wage at $15, the company said. Amazon hired roughly 500,000 additional workers in 2020 as the pandemic fueled a surge in online shopping, and it now employs over 1.3 million people worldwide.

Employees want more autonomy, opportunities to contribute their ideas and to be seen as colleagues, writes Beverly Kaye. "As you give people more power to create, make decisions and truly affect the success of the team, their job satisfaction (and your odds of keeping them) will go up," she writes.

Brian Hogan, a barber and dad from Des Moines, Iowa, turned his basement into a retro video store during the pandemic to stave off quarantine blues, and his wife documented the transformation on TikTok. The initial video introducing the Video Bunker went viral and has more than 667,000 likes.

A friend was recently turned down for a job as a basketball coach at a local high school.

“I have a felony on my record,” he told me. It was a nonviolent drug charge -- and more than 20 years old -- and was dismissed, but it’s been a barrier for some jobs because it shows up on background checks, he explained. He was angry, humiliated and discouraged.

I was disgusted. I know teachers in that same school district who have been convicted -- and served time -- for drunken driving violations but have kept their jobs. Why? They were already employed when they committed the crime. The education code only applies to new job applicants, according to a teacher in the school district.

Society likes to talk a good game about providing opportunities for people who were formerly incarcerated, but my experience is that this is largely lip service. The data in today’s Recruitment & Retention story shows the benefits of second-chance programs. It’s time for policy to get out of the way of progress.

This is a tough issue. Let me know your thoughts on it. And if you know someone who needs to receive this brief, send them this link.