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Sitara Nieves

Executive director, on demand

Sitara Nieves is the former executive director of the on-demand team at Marketplace. She ran podcasts, video and voice-on-demand here at Marketplace! She worked with a growing team of brilliant and creative people to launch new shows and series, and expand Marketplace's audiences across platforms. What was your very first job? Cashier at a KFC In your next life, what would your career be? Pastry chef, bar owner, or owner of a bar that serves great pastries. Fill in the blank: Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you ______. A great cup of coffee. Which is pretty close to happiness. What’s the favorite item in your workspace and why? The big glass windows where I plan out projects and launches on many, many yellow sticky notes.

Latest from Sitara Nieves

  • Former Director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services Larry Townsend.
    Gina Delvac/Marketplace

    A lot has changed since the 1996 law to “end welfare as we know it.” In this reprise, we’ll explore the origins of the welfare-to-work movement.

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  • Mar 24, 2021

    My boss is an app

    Julia Soler loads up her minivan with groceries before her shift doing gig work with Amazon Flex.
    Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

    The gig-app workforce has arrived at our doorstep. But Silicon Valley’s innovations in hiring are only the latest round of this long-running battle over what “employment” means in the American economy.

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  • Mar 17, 2021

    Inside baseball

    Anthony Shew (right) fist bumps fellow pitcher Adam Wainwright while playing for the minor league Springfield Cardinals. As a minor league player, Shew isn't subject to federal minimum wage and overtime requirements.
    Courtesy: Anthony Shew

    In minor league baseball, athletes train, suit up and play for wages that would be illegal in most sectors.

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  • Crowds of people stand in the street, waiting to identify bodies of immigrant workers following the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York City, March 25, 1911.
    Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    After Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, he took both companies to court — the subcontractor he worked for, the “little boss,” and its client, the “big boss,” Koch Foods.

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  • Jimmy Nicks, a chicken catcher in Mississippi.
    Caitlin Esch/Marketplace

    When chicken catcher Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, he started doing the same job for a new boss — only without the pay, protections and benefits he’d come to rely on.

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  • A group of Accenture employees.
    Peter Balonon-Rosen/Marketplace

    Over a quarter of the world’s largest employers don’t just make or sell products — they also rent out workers. Let’s talk about how we got here.

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  • “To suffer or permit to work”
    Ben Hethcoat/Marketplace

    We’ll finally tell you what happened to Jerry Vazquez and how it relates to the story of a 1930s hotel chambermaid. Plus, how we got the federal minimum wage and a new version of “The ABCs.”

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  • Feb 10, 2021

    Who’s the boss?

    Jerry Vazquez and his mother Isabelle.
    Krissy Clark/Marketplace

    Jerry Vazquez was running his own cleaning franchise, but he was barely getting by. He started feeling like he had little control over a business he owned — so Jerry decided it was time to fight back.

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  • Jerry Vazquez holding some of his Jan-Pro gear.
    Krissy Clark/Marketplace

    Jerry Vazquez always dreamed of owning his own business. But becoming a franchisee of a janitorial services company left him in debt and earning less than minimum wage.

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  • ‘The Uncertain Hour’ is back!
    Marketplace

    In season five, we’re looking at this thing we used to call employment. Listen to the trailer now.

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