Work and Health in the Las Vegas economy
This week I have been visiting Las Vegas, Nevada where employment in leisure and hospitality dominates- accounting for around 25% of employment across the entire state. These jobs are often lower paid, with entry level roles starting around $30 000 per year in the context of average salaries across the US of around $60 000 per year.
What’s interesting when it comes to work and health in Las Vegas is the huge range in working conditions depending on employer. Many of the workers here have their sights on the bigger casinos where workers are unionised and therefore have stronger powers of negotiation with their employers. For example, the Culinary and Bartenders Unions represent a range of front of house and back of house hospitality staff, over 25 000 of which work at MGM Las Vegas resorts including Mandalay Bay and Bellagio. Here are some of the conditions they negotiated into their contract last year.
Safety terms
Safety buttons to more workers and penalties if safety buttons do not work
Mandatory room checks for employee and public safety
Tracking sexual harassment, assault, and criminal behaviour by customers
Employment security terms
Recall rights
These give workers the right to return to their roles if the organisation hires following layoffs in the event of a pandemic or economic crisis
Technology protections
Advanced notice when new technology comes onstream that impacts jobs
Healthcare and severance pay for redundancies secondary to technology
Data protection regulations around tracking technology
Lara’s take
Taking a look at these conditions are interesting. Firstly, Las Vegas provides a use case for the need for occupational risk assessments against the hazard of dangerous customer behaviour in hospitality environments, particularly around lone working. This could be relevant across many more hospitality settings internationally.
Secondly, it is relevant to see that whole cohorts of workers are protecting themselves against technology takeovers in their roles. This will be increasingly relevant, and something many people in the UK have experienced fallout from via the recent rail worker strikes. Automation is already taking people’s jobs and will affect many more jobs and. One example I saw first hand in San Francisco was self driving cars. Technology protections are not a sustainable solution and society needs to think ahead about working alongside technology.
It is difficult to know how many leisure and hospitality workers in Las Vegas are in secure employment and how many are unionised, but the Culinary and Bartenders Unions represent around 60 000 of a total hospitality and leisure workforce of 370 000 in Nevada. Even when lower down the socioeconomic ladder and earning 50% of an average US salary, employment conditions can have a significant bearing on work and health. This is both in terms of the safety of the here and now of work, and security of work in the future.
