News Coverage

Phone sex advertisements have long been a staple of overnight television, airing in the wee hours between reruns and infomercials when few people are tuned in.
Anyone who’s clicked through the channels during that time knows the format: A 1-900 number flashes across the bottom of the screen in bold yellow text. The soft-focused video shows a nubile woman sprawled across satin bedsheets, smiling in the candlelight and chatting on a landline. Smooth jazz plays in the background....

A major nationwide phone-sex purveyor, Tele Pay USA, was hit with a class-action lawsuit in federal court this week for allegedly cheating its contract workers out of compensation. As the Washington Post reports, the lawsuit offers a rare look at how the phone-sex industry operates — and it’s nothing like the cushy advertisements you saw during late-night TV years ago.
According to the Post, a Tele Pay phone-sex worker, Anne Cannon, filed a lawsuit on behalf of a potential...

A phone-sex worker filed a collective action against her employer Tele Pay USA in California federal court Tuesday, claiming the company has violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying her less than minimum wage, no overtime and shorting her for “off-the-clock” work.
At best, the suit claims, women who talk for Tele Pay, like lead plaintiff Anne Cannon, make $6 per hour. If their average call times drop below six minutes, their hourly rate drops to $4.20 per hour, the suit...

Phone sex might be expensive and short-lived for consumers, but it doesn’t pay much for the workers on the other line.
That’s according to a class action filed on Tuesday alleging a California-based phone sex operator misclassifies its “phone actors” as independent contractors, depriving them of overtime pay and “off the clock” work. As a result, the sex talk workers, most of whom are women, are paid below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per...

Phone sex might be expensive and short-lived for consumers, but it doesn’t pay much for the workers on the other line.
That’s according to a class action filed on Tuesday alleging a California-based phone sex operator misclassifies its “phone actors” as independent contractors, depriving them of overtime pay and “off the clock” work. As a result, the sex talk workers, most of whom are women, are paid below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per...

If you don’t trust your bank, you’re in good company. With financial regulations unraveling, and in the wake of several shocking banking scandals, it’s remarkable we haven’t all switched to a digital crypto-currency like Bitcoin and ditched our financial institutions.
The latest EY Global Consumer Banking Survey finds customers around the globe have diminishing trust in their banks. While they broadly trust banks to look after their money securely across markets,...

If you don't trust your bank, you're in good company. With financial regulations unraveling, and in the wake of several shocking banking scandals, it's remarkable we haven't all switched to a digital crypto-currency like Bitcoin and ditched our financial institutions.
The latest EY Global Consumer Banking Survey finds customers around the globe have diminishing trust in their banks. While they broadly trust banks to look after their money securely across markets, few have complete trust...

In the latest of a series of executive orders signed since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has again chosen that method as a way to affect policy in the U.S. Unlike some other executive orders that aim to streamline project schedules and cut red tape, however, the "Buy American and Hire American" measure could put more restrictions on the construction industry.
Inside the executive order The executive order doesn’t change anything just yet. Through the order, Trump...

In the wake of the recent United Airlines incident in which it forcefully removed a passenger randomly chosen by a computer to give up his seat for a United employee, homeland security authorities have indicated in background interviews with Homeland Security Today that airlines, working in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Intelligence Community, could, in the event a passenger already onboard is discovered to be a known or suspected terrorist, an airline could be...

The Unfriendly Skies: On Sunday, United Airlines forcibly removed a man who refused to part with his seat on a flight from Chicago to Louisville, reports NPR, BBC News, The New York Times and CNN.
Four passengers were asked to give up their seats to make room for United employees needed for another flight in Louisville. The airline asked for volunteers, offering $400 and a hotel stay. No takers. They went up to $800. No takers. Then they announced a computer would select four customers at...