For decades, many in the video game industry have objected to low pay, poor working conditions and discrimination. Now, some people at Microsoft – including in Texas – are unionizing, and the technology giant is recognizing the alliance.
A supermajority of quality assurance workers at the company’s ZeniMax Studios have agreed they want the Communication Workers of America to represent them.
Dylan Burton is a senior quality and assurance tester in Dallas. He said his group has historically been underpaid.
“We need to make more to be able to afford to live in the areas where our studios are based and to be able to have a reasonable quality of life,” said Burton. “There’s a lot of people who are unable to do that.”
By voluntarily agreeing to bargain, Microsoft will avoid a formal process overseen by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board.
The CWA will represent roughly 300 quality assurance workers at ZeniMax offices in Texas and Maryland.
Organizers hope a union, which allows collective bargaining over issues such as pay and working conditions, will improve their situation.
Burton said he is encouraged to see younger Americans in various jobs trying to unionize.
“I hope that it continues,” said Burton. “That’s like my ideal outcome. Obviously I want our situation to improve, but if it goes beyond that and helps other people too – we’re really doing something important.”
Microsoft purchased the ZeniMax Studio Group, which owns games such as Doom and Fallout, for $7.5 billion in 2020.
ZeniMax is the first studio at Microsoft to secure union representation, and will boast the largest group of union-represented quality assurance testers at any U.S. game studio, according to CWA.
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Employees at Microsoft’s ZeniMax Online Studios have voted to form a union and begin collective bargaining with the tech giant.
The ZeniMax quality assurance workers began organizing months ago and voted to form a union in December. The union is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America and Microsoft has recognized it.
ZeniMax is a video-game production company based in Rockville, with titles such as Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
James Riffle, associate quality assurance tester for Elder Scrolls Online, said the union hopes to address a number of problems.
“A lot of us are overworked and kind of feel like our passion is being used against us,” Riffle explained. “We’ve either seen firsthand or heard stories about working overtime hours and still having to work another job to afford rent or gas. We’ve seen unexplained discrepancies in pay before, between people in the same position. I’ve seen people being forced to do work above their pay grade, without proper compensation.”
It will be Microsoft’s first union negotiation in the United States. The ZeniMax vote follows successful unionization efforts of tech workers at Activision, Alphabet and Apple via the Communications Workers of America’s Campaign to Organize Digital Employees.
The ZeniMax union includes all quality assurance workers at the various ZeniMax studio locations in America, including its subsidiaries. While quality assurance workers spend time playing the video games the company produces, Riffle said the job has its challenges.
“While we do love what we do, people don’t know how painstakingly monotonous it can be,” Riffle pointed out. “We can spend hours trying to reproduce an issue that players find in a game with little to no information. So we have what people think is a dream job, but in reality, that dream is manipulated to underpay you.”
The ZeniMax workers are now the largest group of quality assurance testers to win union representation at any U.S. video game studio.
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Despite minimum-wage increases throughout New England in the new year, New Hampshire continues to match the federal rate of $7.25 an hour, forcing many businesses to raise wages themselves in an effort to retain workers.
Tipped workers continue to make just $3.27 per hour, and continue to leave their jobs at the greatest rate.
Saru Jayaraman, president of the group One Fair Wage, said with 23 states and Washington, D.C. increasing wages in 2023, New Hampshire remains “out of step” with nationwide trends. She argued the skill and labor of tipped workers especially is undervalued, and is reflected in their pay.
“Anybody who works in America should be able to make enough to feed your children and have a roof over your head,” Jayaraman asserted. “That should be a basic regardless of your judgment of the job.”
A 2021 state analysis of the potential economic impacts of increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 over a number of years found workers in the lowest wage categories would see the largest wage increases but also experience the greatest number of job losses. The National Restaurant Association said a dramatic rise in labor costs could force restaurant owners to raise menu prices, cut back on employees’ hours, or eliminate positions.
The sub-minimum wage for tipped workers disproportionately affects women and workers of color in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, workers earning less than $15 an hour comprise 63% of all workers receiving food stamp benefits in the state.
Jayaraman pointed out across the U.S., the restaurant industry alone costs taxpayers $16 billion dollars annually.
“Taxpayers are subsidizing often multibillion-dollar corporations by paying essentially for their workers’ survival,” Jayaraman contended. “Because they are refusing to keep the social contract and pay their workers what they are actually worth.”
Analysis shows a single adult with just one child needs more than $32 an hour to cover basic living costs in the Granite State.
Jayaraman stressed until minimum-wage policy changes, workers will not trust any employer-made wage increases will last, and they will not return to the service industry.
Legislation to incrementally increase the federal minimum wage to $15 was added to a 2021 COVID-19 relief package but ultimately rejected. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., voted against the measure, stating it should be voted upon as a stand-alone bill.
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Arkansans will owe the state fewer tax dollars this year, due to tax cuts that have just gone into effect. The General Assembly met for some special sessions and implemented cuts, both to personal and corporate income taxes.
Bruno Showers, senior policy analyst for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said his group partnered with the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy to analyze the tax cuts and found they’ll mostly benefit people with higher incomes.
He noted that the personal tax rate was cut from 5.5% to 4.9% – which is where the state will lose the most money.
“And we just think that at this time, every day, our kids and families are facing rising prices,” said Showers. “Rents are going up, the cost of food and utilities is going up. And we think that that revenue could be better used to address the needs of everyday Arkansans, rather than cutting taxes.”
Showers noted that the analysis also found the corporate tax cut – from 5.9% to 5.3% – will be passed on to shareholders who may not even live in Arkansas.
He added that nearly 80% of the corporate income-tax cut will benefit the top 20% of earners once it’s fully phased in.
Showers acknowledged that cutting the state’s top corporate income-tax rate may help increase economic activity somewhat. But he said even the most generous estimates show it would be a very small share of the state’s overall economic output.
“At some point before they cut taxes this previous year, and the year before, they hired some consultants to analyze the potential economic boost from cutting these personal income taxes,” said Showers. “And it was something like less than one-tenth of 1% increase in economic output, over a 10 year window.”
Showers said the hope now is that the state won’t have to trim public services or raise taxes elsewhere to make up for the revenue it is losing.
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