‘I had no money’
Gig workers in crosshairs of ailing economy Cop is arrested in stalking of ex
There were the two-hour, unpaid waits outside supermarkets when San Francisco first started to lock down, on top of the heavy shopping bags that had to be lugged up countless flights of stairs.
And yet even after signing up for several apps, 39-yearold Saori Okawa still wasn’t making as much money delivering meals and groceries as she did driving for ridehailing giant Uber before the pandemic struck.
“I started to juggle three apps to make ends meet,” said Okawa, who recently reduced her work hours after receiving unemployment benefits. “It was really hard, because at that time, I could not afford to stay home because I had to pay rent.”
Okawa is one of an estimated 1.5 million so-called gig workers who make a living driving people to airports, picking out produce at grocery stores or providing child care for working parents. Theirs had already been a precarious situation, largely without safeguards such as minimum wage, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and health and safety protections.
But with the pandemic pummeling the global economy and U.S. unemployment reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression, gig workers are clamoring for jobs that often pay less while facing stiff competition from a crush of newly unemployed workers also attempting to patch together a livelihood — all while trying to avoid contracting coronavirus themselves.
U.S. unemployment fell to 11.1% in June, a Depressionera level that, while lower than the month before, could worsen after a surge in coronavirus cases has led states to close restaurants and bars.
Marisa Martin, a law school student in California, turned to Instacart when a state government summer job as a paralegal fell through after a hiring freeze.
She said she enjoys the flexibility of choosing her own hours, but hopes not to have to turn to gig work in the future. The pay is too volatile — with tips varying wildly and work sometimes slow — to be worth the risk of exposure to the virus.
“We are not getting paid nearly enough when we’re on the front lines interacting with multiple people daily,” said Martin, 24, who moved in with her parents temporarily to save money.
Alexandra Lopez-Djurovic, 26, was a full-time nanny in a New York suburb when one of the parents she works for lost her job while the other saw his hours cut.
“All of a sudden, as much as they want me to stay, they can’t afford to pay me,” she said. Her own hours were reduced to about eight per week.
Lopez-Djurovic now charges $30 an hour to coordinate shopping lists over email, offering perks the app companies don’t such as checking the milk’s expiration date before choosing which size to buy. Still, it doesn’t replace the salary she lost.
“One week I might have seven, eight, 10 families I was shopping for,” LopezDjurovic said. “I had a week when I had no money. That’s definitely a challenge.”
An off-duty NYPD cop was arrested early Wednesday after his ex-girlfriend accused him of stalking her, officials said.
Officer Ernie Moran allegedly called his ex multiple times a day and would show up at her Jackson Heights, Queens, home unannounced after she told him never to return. In one incident, he allegedly stared at his exgirlfriend through her window, sources said.
Cops arrested Moran early Wednesday and charged him with aggravated harassment and stalking. He has been with the NYPD six years and works in Brooklyn.
Two people were shot and wounded, including a woman who appeared to be a bystander, when a gunman opened fire in Brooklyn, police said Wednesday.
More than a dozen shots rang out on Linden Blvd. in a courtyard of the Pink Houses in East New York about 9:25 p.m. on Tuesday, cops said.
A woman shot in the chest was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital in critical condition. The other victim, a man, was shot in the arm.
The shooter is still being sought.