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☆ We're watching an American retirement crisis unfold
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The big storyRetirement crisisart-4-art/Getty Images; Adobe Firefly; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BIWhat was once a natural part of the American dream — retirement — is now a luxury many workers can't afford. All of that combines to form a growing, and increasingly bleak, American retirement crisis. Plus, some who do leave work early end up regretting it . AdvertisementWhile early retirement isn't for everyone, retirement at its most basic level — leaving work after most of our adult lives — should be. The notion that people who've done everything they were supposed to, and still can't retire, points to major problems in the system at large.

Persons: —, Jordan Parker Erb, Dan DeFrancesco, Haven't, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, they've, Juliana Kaplan, doesn't, Juliana, who's, she's, Alounthong, Getty, Klaus Vedfelt, Tyler Le, Zers, millennials, Warren Buffett's, Buffett, Sam Bankman, Daniel Jurman, it's, Rebecca Zisser, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Grace Lett, Lisa Ryan Organizations: Service, Business, Pensions, Social Security, Prosecutors, BI, Apple, Accenture, Deloitte, Google Locations: America, India, China, American, New York, London, Chicago

☆ $1 million donation set to wipe school lunch debt for 7,000 US students, says report
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Rebecca Rommen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewThe Arby's Foundation has committed $1 million to wipe the lunch debt burden for tens of thousands of students across the US, including 7,413 students in Georgia. AdvertisementAn estimated 30.4 million students have student lunch debts, totaling a combined debt of $262 million per year, according to the Education Data Initiative. AdvertisementAn elementary school in Ohio came under fire last year when it excluded indebted children from buying ice cream on "Ice Cream Friday." Kids with outstanding school lunch debt were prohibited from buying ice cream even if they came with the necessary $1. The debt problem persists despite legislative efforts such as the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act of 2023.

Persons: —, Rita Patel, Arby's, Insider's Juliana Kaplan, Tiffany Haddish Organizations: Service, Business, Atlanta, Education Data Locations: Georgia, Ohio, Boardman , Ohio

☆ Taylor Swift shelled out $100,000 bonuses to truckers on her Eras tour, reports say
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Taylor Swift handed out $100,000 bonuses to truckers on her tour, according to multiple reports. The singer shelled out over $55 million in bonuses to staff on the tour, People reported. The Eras tour is set to become the highest-grossing tour of all time, according to Pollstar data. Taylor Swift dished out "end of tour" bonuses to staff on her Eras tour, including about 50 truck drivers, according to multiple reports. In total, the singer handed out over $55 million in bonuses to her staff, including dancers, sound technicians, and caterers, People reported.

Persons: Taylor Swift, TMZ, Swift, Scott Swift, Taylor, Mike Scherkenbach, Insider's Juliana Kaplan, Gal, Simu Liu, Mark Zuckerberg Organizations: SoFi, Entertainment, Federal Reserve Locations: Los Angeles, South America, Asia, Europe

☆ If you'd rather quit your job than return to the office, there are still plenty of remote opportunities out there
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Is it still safe to quit your job simply because you don't want to return to the office? The job market is still strong and offers a higher share of remote job postings than pre-pandemicData from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, shows the labor market is still robust. Cory Stahle, an Indeed economist, noted at a press event last week that "remote work is something that is here to stay." Even Indeed renamed its Remote Job Tracker given the demand for hybrid employees, noting as hybrid "work arrangements emerge as a primary modality of flexible work — which itself is a topic of growing interest to job seekers, employers and policymakers alike — we are updating and renaming the Remote Tracker to the Remote & Hybrid Job Tracker." Did you quit your job after being told to return to the office?

Persons: there's, —, Insider's Juliana Kaplan, She's, Bonnie Chiurazzi, Chiurazzi, Lab's Daniel Culbertson, Culbertson, Cory Stahle, Stahle, Dawn Fay, Robert Half, Fay Organizations: Service, ADP Research Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor, Survey Locations: North America

☆ More and more Gen Zers and millennials are demanding work-life balance
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gen Zers and millennials are continuing to rethink their identities in relation to their jobs. But there is a strong desire among these generations to achieve better work-life balance. In fact, more than any other trait among their peers, Gen Zs and millennials admire the ability to balance work and life priorities, the survey found. Both Gen Zers and millennials worry that if the economy worsens, it will make it more difficult for younger workers to ask for flexibility at work and improve their work-life balance, the survey found. Though respondents do believe employers have made progress enabling better work/life balance since pre-pandemic, according to the survey.

Persons: Gen Zers, —, Zers, Zs —, millennials, Gen Zs, Gen Z, they're, Insider's Juliana Kaplan, Rebecca Knight, Gen Z haven't, Z's, Insider's Alexandra York, didn't Organizations: Deloitte, Service, Elon Locations: Germany

☆ Noncompete clauses 'chill' worker rights and are usually illegal, NLRB lawyer says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Noncompete clauses likely violate federal labor law, NLRB's general counsel wrote Tuesday. Criticism from across the aisleWorker advocates have long maintained that noncompete clauses are an unjust infringement on liberty that reduces employees' earning potential. But noncompete clauses have also attracted critics on the right. The criticism from both sides of the political spectrum comes as noncompete clauses have expanded from high-salary workers in fields such as technology and finance to lower-wage professions, such as fast food. That proposed rule, which will be subject to a legal challenge if and when it is finalized, came after the White House encouraged the commission to tackle noncompete clauses, framing them as a barrier to healthy competition and wage growth.

Persons: NLRB's, —, Joe Biden, Jennifer Abruzzo, Biden, Najah Farley, John Lettieri, Insider's Juliana Kaplan Organizations: Workers, Service, Companies, National Labor Relations Board, National Labor Relations Act, Worker, National Employment Law, American Enterprise Institute, Federal Trade Commission, House Locations: Abruzzo, California , Massachusetts, Illinois

☆ A US debt default could spike borrowing costs like credit cards and mortgages, and 'every family should be concerned' says a consumer watchdog
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A US debt default could spike borrowing costs and should concern everyone, a consumer watchdog says. Democrats and Republicans have remained locked in an impasse over raising the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling. Every family should be concerned," Chopra told CNN. The debt ceiling impasse has even elicited some Hail Mary pass solutions. "The closer you get to it, you will have panic," Dimon told Bloomberg.

☆ The Great Resignation is giving way to the 'Big Stay' as job-hopping slows down
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

It may be accurate to say the quitting situation is evolving into the "Big Stay," per ADP's chief economist. "The Big Quit of 2022 could be easing into the Big Stay of 2023," Richardson wrote in her recent commentary. "A year later, all three of these dynamics are abating, and the great resignation itself is looking like a thing of the past." Pollak said that "to the extent that there is a big stay, it is not taking place across the economy." Even if the Great Resignation might not be prevalent in all areas of the economy right now, it could emerge again.

☆ Concert tickets resold on SeatGeek have doubled in price over the last 5 years to to an average of $252 per ticket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Concert fans buying resale tickets could be paying more than double what prices were five years ago. That means the average price of a concert ticket resold on SeatGeek has climbed from $125 in 2019 to $252 in 2023, the company confirmed to Insider. For resold Taylor Swift tickets, the average price is $1,311, per SeatGeek. One 31-year-old fan bought two resale Swift tickets for $5,500, Insider's Juliana Kaplan reported, which she said she later regretted. That was still lower than the rate other resold tickets were going for.

☆ Why cutting middle management is a bad idea
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The push to cut middle managers will backfire on tech. Companies like Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce embarked on cost-cutting efforts that "flattened" org charts by removing middle managers, starting a trend across Silicon Valley. Middle managers, or what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls "managers managing managers," saw their roles shrink in the past year as tech companies focus on "individual contributors," increasingly requiring managers to do coding work themselves. But losing middle managers could also impact team morale and how employees look at their futures in the company. It comes despite Musk recently signing an open letter calling for an industry-wide halt to any AI training for several months.

☆ Real-estate investors said eliminating a popular tax-avoidance tool would damage the economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Aj Latrace | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

President Biden has renewed his commitment to ending the 1031 exchange, a popular tax-deferral tool. Real-estate investors said the negative consequences of doing so could outweigh any gains. They said one impact of ending it could be pushing investors to take their money out of real estate. Of course, real-estate investors — from small-time mom-and-pop landlords to big corporate firms — will want to protect their wealth, and will meet any move to end the 1031 exchange with friction. If they take away the 1031 exchange, there's no incentive not to eat the goose.

☆ Eggs and bacon are finally getting cheaper
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The cost of eggs is finally falling, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inflation cooled down overall, and egg prices fell 6.7% last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index release on Tuesday. The price of bacon also decreased by 1.5%, and even cheese and orange juice experienced modest declines in cost. Inflation impacted the cost of eggs as the avian flu began to spread in earnest last February. The egg news is welcome, especially as food prices increased slightly overall, by about 0.4% compared to January's 0.5% increase.

☆ A popular tax-avoidance tool that home sellers and real-estate investors have been using for decades is at risk — again
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Aj Latrace | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The 1031 exchange is a popular tactic that allows home sellers to avoid paying taxes. The strategy allows sellers to postpone paying taxes on any capital gains — or the money they made in addition to their original investment — by using those funds to immediately buy a similar property elsewhere. This isn't the first time that the president has targeted the 1031 exchange. In 2020, Biden's "caring economy" plan sought to close the 1031 exchange to raise funds for other programs, like universal preschool and a childcare tax credit. Biden's previous threats to end the 1031 exchange were met with stiff resistance from the real-estate industry and were never passed.

☆ Biden is set to use his first veto to save what Republicans call a "woke" rule that lets retirement fund managers consider companies' social and environmental records
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Senate voted to overturn a Labor Department measure allowing investment managers to make socially and environmentally conscious investing decisions. "Republicans' hypocritical resolution to nullify @USDOL's ESG rule ties investors' hands & would force their extremist views on investors," she wrote on Twitter following the vote. It's the latest back-and-forth in an ESG debate triggered by former President Donald Trump, who prohibited financial managers from making such considerations when he was in office. However, the White House has said that Biden will use his first veto as president to protect ESG considerations. As CNBC's Brian Schwartz reported this week, Trump allies and wealthy donors have funded Republicans' fight against ESG investing.

☆ These are the states raising minimum wage in 2023 — see the full list and adjusted rates
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A total of 23 states are hiking minimum wages this year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. See the full list of states and the adjusted rates, below. With the help of activist efforts and legislators, states and cities have been working independently to increase rates as the federal minimum wage stagnates at $7.25 — an amount that hasn't risen in 13 years. While many of the adjusted rates will be effective starting Jan. 1, others come into effect later, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project. Here's the full list of states increasing minimum wage and the new rates coming in 2023, according to NELP data:

☆ Sen. Cory Booker says that Democratic party has a 'strong pathway' to control Senate despite recent polls
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Taylor Ardrey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Cory Booker says that Democrats have a strong chance to control the Senate. "The reality is we still have a very strong pathway," Booker told ABC News. During an appearance on ABC's "This Week," host Martha Raddatz asked Booker about a recent FiveThirtyEight poll that predicts that Republicans have a 55% chance of taking control. "That this is the party at the end of the day that's trying to protect fundamental freedoms like the right to control your own body. So I think this a tough elections season ... but I still see a pathway for us to maintain control of the Senate."

☆ Americans say retirement is possible, but it's going to cost more, new survey finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A new Northwestern Mutual study showed that Americans are expecting to save more and work longer to retire comfortably. Respondents to the survey said they'll need at least $1.25 million to retire, according to the report. The study, based on polling of 2,381 American adults, also said that the expected retirement age is up from 62.6 in 2021 to now 64. Christian Mitchell, chief customer officer at Northwestern Mutual, pointed at the current economy as an indicator of why Americans may be feeling less positive about their retirement. Seek the help of a financial advisor because it may help take years off your expected retirement age.

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