Today’s links Bad King Richard got rich by exploiting workers at King’s Faire: Creative workers are workers. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2013, 2018. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Bad King Richard got rich by exploiting workers at King’s Faire (permalink) King Richard’s Faire is the largest renfaire in New England, and its owner, Dick Shapiro, extracts a reported $400k/day – a sum that is only possible thanks to systematic and likely illegal worker misclassification, which lets him pay performers sub-minimum wages and deny them benefits: https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/172267v/kings_faire_inc_aim%C3%A9e_bonnie_shapiro_nets_over/ Many of the performers at KRF are absolutely unpaid – these are the “villagers” – who mill about looking picturesque in exchange for free admission. They even have to buy their own turkey legs. When the faire is rained out, all workers – “volunteers” and paid workers – are sent home without any compensation. Attendees are also sent home with rain-checks, many of which go unused (there’s no refunds in the land of King Richard). Staff work from 8am to 730pm and are paid a day-rate that works out to $6/hour. After heavy weather events, staff are ordered to show up early to do cleanup, but are not paid for their time. Staff don’t get health benefits – instead, local community groups like the Elks put on fundraisers to cover the health-care costs of the performers. Now, King Richard’s worker mistreatment is not an outlier in the medieval reenactment industry. Think…Pluralistic: Bad King Richard got rich by exploiting workers at King's Faire (25 Oct 2023)