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☆ A battle over paid leave is threatening to grind the US economy to a halt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

US rail workers are preparing to strike over their latest negotiations with management. Three years of rail workers' negotiations with management over this issue could soon culminate in an economy-disrupting strike, after the latest tentative agreement included just one paid personal day off a year. That's too far from the 15 days of paid sick leave that rail workers pushed for, and which railroads argue would cost them $688 million a year. While praise for essential workers has faded, rail workers still hold a lot of power in the economy. "The stockholders would go absolutely crazy if we were able to strike for one day."

☆ China is a growing threat to national security, U.S. companies and American workers, U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

It's now clear to U.S. officials that China, once considered a possible economic and political ally, has become an emerging threat to national security, U.S. companies and American workers, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday. "China's reprioritization away from economic growth toward national security and its assertive military behavior means that we have to rethink how we protect our national security interests while also promoting our interests in trade and investment." "Probably most disturbingly is they're accelerating their efforts to fuse economic and technology policies with their military ambitions," Raimondo said. "China today poses a set of growing challenges to our national security," she said. But in areas that have no potential to undermine our interests, our values, our national security, our economic security, and at the same time using every tool in our toolbox to protect our companies and counter unfair economic practices," Raimondo said.

☆ Marco Rubio slams Biden shutting down a rail strike for workers who want more paid sick leave: 'I will not vote to impose a deal that doesn't have the support of the rail workers'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rail workers were threatening to strike over lack of paid leave, potentially devastating the economy. "But if Congress is forced to do it,I will not vote to impose a deal that doesn't have the support of the rail workers." Congress is able to vote to step in and impose a deal for rail workers, overruling the normal bargaining process. Workers wanted 15 paid sick days, according to Reuters, but railroad companies agreed to just one paid personal day in the tentative agreement. Michael Paul Lindsey, a locomotive engineer in Idaho and steering committee member for Railroad Workers United, told Insider it was a "blatant betrayal," but he wasn't surprised.

On the contrary, he’s fired Twitter employees who publicly disagreed with him about engineering issues at the company. Musk originally claimed he bought Twitter because he wanted to encourage more free speech on the platform. But no one should be surprised that “free speech” for Musk really means free speech for the powerful. But that doesn’t make him an avatar of free speech. But like other bosses, he’s got a genius for manufacturing unfreedom.

☆ Bosses are 'done with the COVID excuse' and it means calling out sick is getting harder
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

This year, about 630,000 more Americans per month are calling out sick for a week or more than pre-pandemic. Even though an elevated number of workers are still getting sick, employers are losing their patience. One union told Insider that the disparity highlights the need for guaranteed sick leave. "UFCW fights hard to ensure guaranteed sick leave is included in our contracts so employers can't simply cut back on leave because they're 'tired of excuses.'" When it comes to low-wage employees, over 60% don't have access to sick leave, according to a September study from the Economic Policy Institute.

☆ Student-loan borrowers who applied for Biden's debt relief shouldn't have to worry about living with 'crushing student loan debt as a result of a court challenge,' the nation's largest labor federatio
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan is currently paused after two court rulings. Over the past week, courts handed Biden's student-debt relief plan two major blows. That decision was in favor of the six Republican-led states who sued the debt relief, arguing it would hurt their states' tax revenues. "The AFL-CIO is extremely disappointed in the partisan legal effort to shut down the Biden administration's life-changing student loan relief. The federation's president, Liz Shuler, called on Biden to cancel student debt in the spring.

☆ Everyone's been wrong about inflation, and it's costing workers in salary negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Inflation eased in October, but it stayed well ahead of most workers' year-over-year pay increases. While American workers are experiencing the strongest wage growth in many years, fueled by strong demand for labor, inflation has continued to overpower pay gains for most workers. Average hourly earnings, for instance, rose 4.7% in October, continuing to trail even the slower inflation rate. Several things have held back workers in their salary negotiations, including the decline of unions, stagnant minimum wages, globalization, and perhaps even some corporate greed. With demand for labor so high, some experts have wondered why Americans' wages haven't grown by even more.

☆ Tech CEO says he was hit with up to $30,000 in surprise taxes and fees after a software engineer worked remotely in California and Texas without telling the company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tech startup GravyWork racked up an estimated $500,000 in costs due to a surprise from a remote worker, WSJ reported. CEO Alex Atwood didn't register his business in California and Texas, where an employee spent time working. Some workers take advantage of remote work policies by lying to their bosses and co-workers about their location. As a result, Atwood said that his company racked up between $20,000 and $30,000 in taxes, registration fees and penalties in surprise bills. A Berlin-based remote worker even went so far as to set up a personal computer with a VPN so the company can't track his location.

☆ Check on Your FSA Now, or Be Stuck Buying Sunscreen in December
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Ashlea Ebeling | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For the millions of American workers who have healthcare flexible-spending accounts, here’s a timely reminder: Spend your FSA. Since the pandemic began, many workers have been spared the annual deadline for using up their FSAs. This year, the clock is ticking once again and any money not spent by Dec. 31 might be gone for good.

☆ These People Quit Higher-Paying Jobs for Better Work-Life Balance. Inflation Is Testing Their Mettle.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Katherine Bindley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Many of the millions of people who switched jobs during the pandemic are feeling the bite of inflation especially hard, and for an often overlooked reason—they opted for pay cuts. All around, it has been a good time for American workers and their earning power—if not their spending power. Labor shortages have driven up wages, and many in-demand employees have quit jobs for better-paying ones.

☆ Worried about missing work to cast your ballot in the 2022 midterms? Here are the states that offer time off to vote.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Kayla Gallagher | Shayanne Gal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Here are the states that offer time off from work to cast your ballot. Currently 22 states and the District of Columbia offer employees paid time off to vote. There are seven states that offer unpaid time off. There are 20 states that still do not offer any time off accommodations for employees looking to vote early or on Election Day. Make sure to check the laws in your state and alert your employer in advance if you plan to take time off to cast your ballot.

☆ You can retire abroad for less than $2,000 a month in Tokyo, Berlin and these other 8 cities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

About 15% of American workers want to retire abroad, according to Dutch life insurance company Aegon's latest "Retirement Readiness Survey." Some retirees are already doing it: As of 2021, around 444,000 retired workers collected Social Security benefits while living in a foreign country, according to the Social Security Administration's latest data. "The U.S. dollar is relatively strong compared to many other currencies, which allows U.S. retirees in those countries to stretch their money further," he adds. Although leaving the U.S. doesn't guarantee a lower cost of living, Little warns, there are several international cities where you can live on just a few thousand dollars per month. For American expats looking to stretch their retirement dollars, here are 10 cities across the globe where the average cost of living is less than $2,000 per month.

☆ US curbs on China's microchip industry could throttle Xi Jinping's tech ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

One dramatic, and potentially disruptive aspect of the rules is the ban on American citizens and legal residents working with Chinese chip firms. The ban could lead to a mass resignation of top executives and core research staff working at Chinese chip firms, which will hit the industry hard, Dong from Georgetown University said. So far it’s not clear exactly how many American workers there are in China’s domestic chip industry. At Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC), one of the country’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers, at least seven executives, including founder and chairman Gerald Yin, hold US citizenship, the latest company documents show. But some Western suppliers have already started preparing to halt sales to China in response to the US export curbs.

☆ US workers are stressed, anxious, and disengaged. Here are 3 simple strategies managers can use to help them.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Managers can use a number of research-backed interventions to foster employee happiness. Note to managers: Happiness drives business results. A study published in early 2022 found that employees with high measures of self-reported happiness upon starting their jobs performed better than those with lower measures of happiness. Cultivate happinessWhen it comes to boosting an employee's emotional well-being, there is only so much a boss can do. Lester and his co-researchers have recommended managers lead team exercises geared toward improving employee well-being.

☆ I took an $18-an-hour job in an Amazon warehouse to cure the spiraling depression I felt as a CEO. It worked — and gave me a new perspective on the industry.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Hannah Towey | Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

He quit his CEO job and began working 11-hour Amazon warehouse shifts during the company's busiest season. I decided to take a warehouse job at AmazonIt felt like the one thing I really needed for myself was some structure — wakeup times, some exercise — just to get out there somehow. Philip Su worked in an Amazon warehouse for seven weeks. My warehouse job lifted me out of my depressionI took the job because I was desperate for something to enforce regularity for me, and I very much benefited from Amazon doing that. Are you an Amazon warehouse worker with a story to tell?

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with 17 industry groups representing more than 1,000 firms in the clean energy supply chain, more than 2,000 utilities and more than 1 million American workers, a Treasury official said. The Treasury guidance will tell companies how they can take advantage of clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. The incentives are crucial for companies seeking to invest in solar and wind power, electric vehicles, clean energy manufacturing, and energy efficiency. The act extends 30% tax credits for wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources, and offers incentives for carbon capture and tax credits of up to $7,500 on zero-emission electric vehicles. The roundtable follows Treasury's issuance of six notices requesting public comments on topics such as tax credits for wind, solar and nuclear power, incentives for energy-efficient homes and clean vehicle credits.

☆ Chip shortage weakness is broadening
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailChip shortage weakness is broadeningCNBC's Kristina Partsinevelos joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss the weakness in chip supply spreading beyond computers, how the shortage is challenging the automotive industry and the struggle American workers in face due to new U.S. government restrictions against developing AI chips outside of the U.S.

☆ Workers lacking paid leave quit at higher rates in pandemic, report shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Eli M. Rosenberg | Eli Rosenberg Is An Investigative Tech Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The report found that workers without paid sick leave quit at three to four times the rate of comparable workers between 2019 and 2021. About a quarter of workers in the U.S. do not have paid sick leave, a proportion that is higher among lower-wage workers. In the congressional report, salaried workers — who typically enjoy more benefits and stability — fared better than hourly workers within companies. Female hourly workers experienced worse outcomes than male hourly workers 30% of the time, but among salaried workers, the difference was less than 10%. Both Black and Asian hourly workers were less likely to be promoted than their white counterparts, while Black hourly workers were fired at higher rates than white ones.

☆ Walmart, Disney among top 12 employers that laid off thousands during the pandemic, House inquiry finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Black hourly workers at Walmart were also reportedly fired twice as often as white hourly workers in 2020, at 19.7% vs. 10.4%. Members of this group were also fired three times as frequently, 19.7%, as Black salaried employees at 6.3% and almost five times as frequently, 19.7%, as white salaried employees at 4%. In comparison, 10.2% of male hourly workers and 12.4% of female hourly workers with access to sick leave quit that year. Chevron's hourly workers did better than salaried workers more than half the time and while Exxon's hourly workers fared better than salaried workers 40% of the time, according to the report. For instance, Walmart generally did not allow hourly workers to use paid time off benefits until after 90 days of employment.

☆ There are 7 types of bosses, says workplace culture expert—only 1 is worth working for, or trying to become
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Others only seem good at first, and you can use this guide to differentiate between the two, says workplace culture expert Tom Gimbel. "There's an expression: 'People join companies, but they quit bosses," Gimbel tells CNBC Make It. Gimbel says there are seven types of bosses, with one clearly better than the rest. Socializing at work certainly isn't bad, but Gimbel says those bosses prioritize making friends over properly leading and keeping a team accountable. Those bosses don't realize that it's largely their fault when a finished assignment is far from what they want.

☆ Americans think you need $1.7 million to retire comfortably—here's how much you need to save each month to get there by 65
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Cheyenne Devon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

On average, American workers think they'll need $1.7 million saved for retirement, but a little less than half believe they're likely to meet their savings goals, according to a recent Charles Schwab study. That's understandable: Financial planners typically recommend saving between 10% and 15% of your gross annual salary for retirement, which is no small feat. Workers with employer-sponsored retirement plans only contribute around 7% of their income toward their retirement fund on average, according to Vanguard's "How America Saves 2022" report. With this in mind, CNBC calculated how much you'd need to put away to save $1.7 million by 65, as well as how much you'd need to earn to accomplish this without saving more than 15% of your income. Here's how much you need to put away each month to save $1.7 million by 65.

☆ 66% of American workers are worse off financially than a year ago due to inflation, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jessica Dickler | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rising costs have chipped away at most Americans' standard of living. As inflation pressures continue, two-thirds of working adults said they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, according to a recent report by Salary Finance. The report is based on a survey of 500 adults in August. The rising cost of living is bad news for workers, whose average hourly earnings declined 0.1% for the month on an inflation-adjusted basis and are off 3% from a year ago, leaving more Americans living paycheck to paycheck. Now, 32% of adults said they regularly run out of money between pay periods, according to Salary Finance.

☆ The Trump and COVID eras tanked immigration to the US. Reversing that could help ease a recession risk, sky-high inflation, and a labor crisis.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Ben Winck | Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

More than a third of Americans want less immigration, but more could actually help cool inflation. Letting more people move to and work in the US could close that gap and ease inflation without a severe recession. While many Americans view immigration as a threat to the country's financial well-being, data continually suggests that the opposite is true. There remain some 10.1 million job openings but only about 5.8 million workers available to fill them. Increased immigration, then, provides a rare chance to rebalance the labor market and drag inflation lower without driving millions of Americans out of work.

REUTERS/Lindsey WassonWASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - When a Washington state beauty salon charged Simran Bal $1,900 for training after she quit, she was shocked. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterNearly 10% of American workers surveyed in 2020 were covered by a training repayment agreement, said the Cornell Survey Research Institute. The practice, which critics call Training Repayment Agreement Provisions, or TRAPs, is drawing scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers. While waiting to complete the training, Bal worked at the front desk, which paid less. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in comments that training repayment demands were "particularly egregious" in commercial trucking.

☆ American Executives in Limbo at Chinese Chip Companies After U.S. Ban
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Liza Lin | Karen Hao | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SINGAPORE—American workers hold key positions throughout China’s domestic chip industry, helping manufacturers develop new chips to catch up with foreign rivals. Now, those workers are in limbo under new U.S. export control rules that prohibit U.S. citizens from supporting China’s advanced chip development. At least 43 senior executives working with 16 publicly listed Chinese semiconductor companies are American citizens, according to an examination of company filings and official websites by The Wall Street Journal. Many of them hold C-suite titles, from chief executive to vice president and chairman.

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