Talia Jane (born Talia Ben-Ora in 1990 or 1991)
is an American writer and labor activist. They are known for bringing attention to
minimum wage compensation across
tech companies in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
Education and career
Jane attended
community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...
until they transferred to
California State University, Long Beach,
where they earned a Bachelor of Arts in
English literature.
Jane is a
freelance journalist and has contributed to
Mic,
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...
,
Allure,
Elle
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...
, and
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
. They also worked as a writer for ''
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
''Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'' is an American late-night talk and news satire television program that aired on TBS from 2016 to 2022. The show was hosted by comedian Samantha Bee, a former correspondent on ''The Daily Show''.
In July 202 ...
''s trivia game ''This Is Not A Game: The Game''. As an independent reporter, in 2020, Jane attended protests in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
following the death of football player Johnathan Price and later election protests in Washington, D.C.
Activism at Yelp
In February 2016, Jane published an open letter on
Medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
to
Jeremy Stoppelman
Jeremy Stoppelman (born November 10, 1977) is an American business executive. He is the CEO of Yelp, which he co-founded in 2004. Stoppelman obtained a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champai ...
, the chief executive officer of
Yelp
Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in San F ...
, where they worked as a
customer service representative
Customer service representatives, customer service advisors, customer service agents, or customer service associates interact with customers to handle complaints, process orders, and provide information about an organization’s products and servic ...
for Yelp's
Eat24 food delivery service. The letter contrasted the minimum-wage hourly pay of their role and the high cost of living in the Bay Area, highlighting the workers' $12.25 hourly wages, the cost of housing and groceries, and poverty issues among their colleagues.
Jane said the only housing they could afford with their pay was 30 miles east in
Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
, and had no money left for food after rent and transportation to work.
They were fired shortly after they published the letter, the news of which garnered significant media attention. Jane was both credited for sparking an important conversation about
living wage
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking lab ...
s, and criticized for their method of delivery. In an analysis for the ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', writer
Malcolm Harris noted that Jane was "pilloried in the media as just another entitled millennial who wanted things handed to them" but noted of the resulting wage increase: "Many large labor actions have achieved less".
They said that they were told they were being terminated due to the Medium post, would receive severance of $1,000, and would not be allowed to return to work at Yelp. Stoppelman denied that Jane's termination was related to the letter, and a spokesperson for Yelp stated, "We do not comment on personnel issues." However, two weeks later, after former employee Jaymee Senigaglia wrote her own open letter, Yelp published justification for her termination on Twitter.
In April 2016, Yelp raised the pay of Eat24 customer service representatives from $12.25 to $14 an hour, added 11 paid holidays (up from zero), and increased the number of days of paid time off from 5 to 15. Yelp did not reference Jane in its announcement and said that changes had been in the works since quarter 4 2015 – three months before Jane published their letter. Employees at Yelp reportedly disputed this claim and believed Jane was the "whistleblower" who prompted the changes.
Awards and recognition
Jane was named one of ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...
''s 100 "most amazing and inspiring people in tech right now" as well as one of
''Inc'''s "25 Coolest Women in Silicon Valley," both of which credited their open letter for the subsequent conversations about living wages in
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
.
In 2016, Jane spoke at
XOXO Festival
XOXO is an annual festival and conference held in Portland, Oregon, that describes itself as "an experimental festival for independent artists who live and work online". XOXO was founded in 2012 by Andy Baio and Andy McMillan with funding from p ...
on the impact of
online harassment
Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using Electronic communication network, electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially ...
.
Personal life
Jane grew up in Concord, California with their mother, a practicing
Wicca
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and w ...
n, and near their father. At 10 years old, Jane unknowingly became an accomplice to spree killers
Glenn Helzer, Justin Helzer, and Dawn Godman, after Jane's mother purchased movie tickets as an
alibi
An alibi (from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person, who is a possible perpetrator of a crime, of where they were at the time a particular offence was committed, which is somewhere other than where the crim ...
for the trio. Their mother testified against the killers, and was later committed to the psychiatric ward, and Jane went to live with their grandparents in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
.
They later wrote about the experience.
In May 2019, Jane was the recipient of a sexually explicit message via Twitter that was sent to them by a ''
Seattle Times'' reporter. The reporter was suspended by the ''Times'' and resigned from the paper on June 7, 2019.
References
External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jane, Talia
1990s births
21st-century American writers
Activists from California
American bloggers
American writers
American social activists
Workers' rights activists
American whistleblowers
Living people
People from Concord, California
Writers from California
Year of birth missing (living people)