Help a Broke Labor Reporter Take a Summer Vacation

It’s the Fourth of July weekend and I am absolutely exhausted from all the hard work we have put into Payday over the last few weeks, including on a major expose that’s about to drop. I was hoping to take about five days off and return back to work next Wednesday, refreshed and ready to cover the labor movement.

However, self-employed labor reporters don’t enjoy paid holidays. If I don’t crowdfund or freelance, I simply don’t make money, which makes vacation not very relaxing at all. 

We need you to donate so that I can free myself from crowdfunding for the next five days and relax. With long COVID, it’s been hard getting back to work, and I am looking forward to getting some rest. If we raise money, maybe I’ll even go on a day trip up to Erie or catch some ballgame. 

Once, we get back we will do the kind of high-impact reporting that we always do. 

Payday Report’s Strike Tracker has tracked more than 2,000 strikes since March, 2020. It has been cited on the front page of The Washington Post, featured on NPR’s All Things Considered Labor Day broadcast, and profiled on PBS American Portraits. 

Esquire described our work as “invaluable,” The New York Times called us a publication with “new energy,” and last year our work on CNN’s United Shades of America was nominated for an Emmy

Sign up as one of our 702 recurring donors to provide us with a sustainable base of funding.

Donate today so I can enjoy a five-day break

Love & Solidarity,

Melk