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☆ Millennials in their 30s are sitting in an economic quagmire that could stick with them through retirement
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In the long run, this generation may also be hit by cuts in Social Security benefits. In the longer run, millennials' retirement may also be affected if Social Security benefits are cut. Millennials in their 30s are accruing debt faster than their peersWhile Experian and Credit Karma research show Gen X has the highest average debt, millennials still hold a lot of debt too — and are accumulating it faster than anyone else. Millennials face looming retirement insecurityIf all of that wasn't enough, millennials' retirement situation in the future could be different from Gen X and baby boomers. Additionally, millennials' retirement safety nets are likely to be affected if they can't get full Social Security benefits.

☆ A small Japanese town charges visitors to learn its baby-making tips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The birth rate in Japan has been falling for three decades, and hit an all-time low last year. But in one small town, parents are electing to have more kids, The Wall Street Journal reported. For a second child, parents pay a maximum of $210, and aren't charged for any kids they have after that. Additionally, parents in Nagi receive a stipend of $1,000 annually for each child they have enrolled in high school. "We'd like to make policies like this," Kang Mu-seung, a South Korean official visiting Nagi, told The Journal.

☆ How a senior manager at Amazon made the mid-career switch to tech and why she still encourages others to do the same despite recent layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Despite layoffs across the industry, she says there are a lot of options for aspiring tech workers. But a rude awakening over the past year has disrupted the tech industry. "You were convinced that it's for the greater good, so you have to sacrifice your own life for work," she said. "I think moving over to this job and tech has helped me set better boundaries about my work life and my personal life." A few years into her career switch, Imam reflected that transitioning from one field to another was humbling.

☆ 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.

☆ There are whispers on Capitol Hill of a rare bipartisan effort to overhaul Social Security as the program is set to go broke in less than 10 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A group of senators is considering a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) to prevent Social Security insolvency, Semafor reported. A SWF is a government-backed investment fund, and its profits would be used to pay Social Security benefits. In this case, such investments would be used to fund Social Security payments. The goal is, members of the group told Semafor, for Social Security to be solvent for 75 more years, at least. "Although the final framework is still taking shape, there are no cuts for Americans currently receiving Social Security benefits in our plan.

☆ Companies could lower grocery store prices if the US passed immigration reform, says a major food CEO: 'It's a crisis out here in terms of labor availability'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford told Time that allowing more immigration would help ease costs in the stretched industry. One food CEO is pointing to an untapped pool of people who could help businesses ease their labor shortage and lower prices for Americans: immigrants. To get some immigration reform," Beth Ford, the head of Land O'Lakes, a massive supplier of dairy goods, told Time's John Simons. It's a crisis out here in terms of labor availability." Amid labor shortage problems, Ford said that it's important to keep in mind that the demand for food is only growing.

☆ The White House is cracking down on companies illegally using migrant children to fill the labor shortage as 15-year-olds pack Cheerios and 13-year-olds change your hotel sheets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The New York Times reported last week that companies across the US are exploiting the labor of migrant children. The investigation comes as multiple states seek to loosen child labor laws to address the labor shortage. The Times reported that the use of child labor is prevalent across a number of prominent brands in the US, highlighting J. The Labor Department has found some of these companies, such as ice cream staple Ben & Jerrys, guilty of child labor violations before. Economists say that during a labor shortage, paring back child labor laws is a common phenomenon in the US.

☆ Elizabeth Warren urges the Supreme Court to strike down Trump-appointed judges' decision to imperil funding for a student-loan industry and consumer-rights watchdog
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court will take on a lower court's decision that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's federal funding is unconstitutional. Senator Elizabeth Warren advocated for the Supreme Court to strike down that decision. "If the Supreme Court follows more than a century of law and historical precedent, it will strike down the Fifth Circuit's decision before it throws our financial markets and economy into chaos." McHenry, who now runs the House Financial Services Committee, has hinted at seeking stronger oversight for CFPB for months now. And that's on top of a longer context of Republicans challenging the CFPB's funding and decision making.

☆ The fate of a post-2008 watchdog meant to protect Americans from another financial crisis is in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Supreme Court will take on a lower court's decision that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding structure is unconstitutional. CFPB was set up to prevent another 2008-like financial crisis and has cracked down on big banks and the student-loan industry. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to take a decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in October that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) funding structure is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court won't hear the case until next term, though, meaning a final decision isn't likely until the spring of 2024. Created in 2011 under former President Barack Obama, the CFPB was intended to protect Americans from another financial crisis following the 2008 recession.

☆ Gary Vaynerchuk compares the rise of AI like ChatGPT to the way the internet revolutionized work: 'AI is coming for our jobs and that's ok'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Gary Vaynerchuk predicts that AI software like ChatGPT will eliminate many jobs. He's optimistic about workers' ability to rally and adapt to AI, or create new roles. That's been true to an extent about previous types of automation, but AI looks likely to impact a broader demographic of workers. Like Vaynerchuk points out, there's some reason to be optimistic long-term about the job shake ups technology can cause. But Vaynerchuk is more convinced that AI represents the status quo for automation.

☆ The White House is reportedly eyeing a tax on high-earning Americans to fund Social Security after Bernie Sanders pushed it
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bernie Sanders met with Joe Biden to pitch a tax on high-earning Americans to fund Social Security, The Washington Post reported. Sanders advocated for Biden to increase payroll taxes on high-earning Americans to fund Social Security for 70 more years as the program approaches insolvency in the next decade. Sanders' proposal would raise the cap on how much income is subject to the payroll taxes that pay for Social Security. According to a White House official, the White House has not endorsed any specific bill — but the president welcomes proposals from members of Congress on how to keep Social Security solvent and make the program even stronger. The idea of an expanded payroll tax to shore up Social Security isn't new for President Biden.

☆ Some companies have used a legal loophole to avoid paying overtime by giving workers exaggerated job titles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Companies are getting away with not paying their workers for overtime, a new NBER paper shows. That's because of a loophole in federal law where employers don't have to pay managers overtime. Companies have also been cutting pay for other workers by classifying them as contractors. That loophole involves misclassifying workers as managers, even if they don't have actual managerial duties. They weren't getting paid for overtime, and an Atlanta court awarded them $35 million in addition to unpaid overtime.

☆ A mom of 2 explains how she knew it was time to leave her job of 17 years due to burnout and chronic stress
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

That, on top of a high-pressure job, caused her mental health symptoms to progress into physical pain, she told Insider. What I didn't understand at the time was that it was also affecting not just my mental health, but it was affecting my physical health." She said that she watched the people around her take their own leaves of absence for physical or mental health reasons. She's still seeking medical help from her physical health symptoms, but says they've improved a lot over the past year. A lot of times we talk about chronic stress and we think about mental health, but it's bigger than that.

☆ An undocumented worker was able to pay rent because he got $2,000 as part of a UBI-like program that will now be permanent for Coloradans who lose their jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Leo Alvarez received $2,000 from a pandemic-era fund for undocumented workers who lost wages in 2020. The fund has led to a permanent unemployment assistance program for undocumented workers in Denver. The pandemic exacerbated inequalities for undocumented workers that advocates want states to address. In New York for instance, advocates want the state to make its fund for undocumented workers permanent. "This is not something that's a luxury," Jessica Maxwell of the Workers Center of Central New York told Spectrum News last month.

☆ Instead of paying adults more, some states might let companies hire kids as young as 14 to fill the labor shortage
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Republicans in some states are proposing exceptions to child labor regulations. Lawmakers in Iowa and Minnesota have introduced legislation in the last month proposing exceptions to child labor regulations in their respective states, due to the persisting labor shortage hitting them particularly hard. "A lot of the child labor jobs are menial jobs and those skills aren't transferrable," she said. The proposed laws skirt around the child labor requirements outlined by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Research shows that these workers aren't averse to meatpacking work entirely — they're just not willing to do it for the current wage standard.

☆ 'Identity capital' is the key to getting your dream job and making friends in your 20s, according to Gen Z and millennials on TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Young professionals on TikTok are advocating for building "identity capital" to get ahead at work and in life. Identity capital has a lot more to do with connections and relationships and community." "I think of identity capital as anything you do that adds value to who you are," Jay told Insider. "The personal resources acquired developmentally become important," Côté wrote in one 2012 paper, with those personal resources being the experiences that make up identity capital; he calls identity capital the "black box of agency" where there is none. "I don't think identity capital is only valued to the extent that it's seen as profitable," she said.

☆ 'Resenteeism:' When you hate your job enough to do more than 'quiet quit,' but are too anxious about the economy to leave
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"Resenteeism" is aiming to join the worker's lexicon alongside "quiet quitting." It describes being openly apathetic about work, but being reluctant to quit due to anxiety about job security. The job market is still going strong, but Americans are anxious about tech layoffs and a possible recession. Resenteeism involves keeping your job when you don't want to — namely, when you're worried about job security or a lack of other opportunities available. What makes resenteeism different from normal 9-to-5 blues, in theory, is that you're more open with your dissatisfaction at work.

☆ It's fine to use ChatGPT to write your cover letter, a recruiter says. But it could screw you over on interview prep.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

ChatGPT has grown in popularity among job seekers, writing cover letters and resumes in seconds. One recruiter says it's just a more accessible version of something job seekers have always done. People have shared stories on social media about using it to write cover letters, a time-consuming thorn in job seekers' side. As a recruiter who works with people in highly specialized roles, Laughlin also cautioned against using ChatGPT to bypass technical screenings for jobs, like with coding. But for now, he sees the bot as an impressive way for job seekers to get their foot in the door at companies.

☆ Low-income renters are frustrated by Biden's new plan to make housing more affordable because they don't think it does enough to combat surging rents
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The White House outlined actions it's taking to protect tenants amid rising rents and evictions. Tenants' groups told Insider that they wanted decisive legal and financial action from the president. In addition to that, the White House also published a "Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights," endorsing fair housing practices and a tenants' right to organize. "On the one hand, we are encouraged that the White House has released this Blueprint as a statement of values," Martin said. "As a blueprint, the document's statements don't do anything to materially help improve conditions for renters," he said.

☆ A laid-off Meta worker says she's struggling after not getting the 16 weeks of severance her fellow employees received: 'I'm going through my kids' closet and selling their old clothes'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Meta employees who were laid off at the end of last year received 16 weeks or more of severance pay. In addition to those four months of pay, employees were offered two additional weeks of severance for every year at the company, with no limit. Those workers received fewer weeks of severance and insurance than other Meta employees — they were given only the amount of pay necessary to comply with federal law. Beyond that, Levy told Insider that she wasn't offered any other severance pay, only three months of health insurance. But she's in a tough spot with limited severance pay, and she said that the $450 ceiling for unemployment benefits in California is not keeping up with the cost of living.

☆ An 'anti-capitalist' financial planner explains how to make ethically sound investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

River Nice is a self-proclaimed anti-capitalist financial planner based in Philadelphia. They also want to empower young people with less wealth to meet their financial goals. It's a value system that makes their career as a financial planner unique. Nice wants to help young people be intentional and independent when it comes to their moneyThe stock market is a complicated topic in Nice's practice. Nice said, however, that the stock market is unavoidable for those making financial plans in the current US economy.

☆ Forget 'quiet quitting:' High-income men are openly cutting their work hours more than their coworkers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Higher-earning men with college degrees are clocking fewer hours at work. That's as men without degrees have been quitting due to perceived low social and financial prospects. Highly paid men typically work more hours than their peers, Yongseok Shin, an economist who co-wrote the paper, told The Wall Street Journal's Courtney Vinopal. Fueling that figure are young men without college degrees, according to the Boston Fed. Higher-paid men with college degrees have more financial mobility, and likely a stronger social self-estimation.

☆ Forget 'quiet quitting': Men earning six figures are openly cutting their work hours more than their coworkers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Men earning with college degrees earning at least $100k a year are clocking fewer hours at work. That's as men without degrees have been quitting due to perceived low social and financial prospects. Highly paid men typically work more hours than their peers, Yongseok Shin, an economist who co-wrote the paper, told Insider. Fueling that figure are young men without college degrees, according to the Boston Fed. Higher-paid men with college degrees have more financial mobility, and likely a stronger social self-estimation.

The issue brief stated that a "10% increase in median childcare prices was associated with 1 percentage-point lower county-level maternal employment rates." "High childcare prices and minimal public childcare investments are especially detrimental to employment among mothers with lower wages, as childcare affordability is out of reach," the researchers wrote. Childcare costs have outpaced inflation during the pandemic, according to one recent report, and the lion's share of childcare duties have fallen on women during the pandemic, causing them to leave the workforce en masse. Childcare workers made a mean hourly wage of $13.31 as of 2021, with the bottom 10% earning about $9 an hour. That's as childcare workers are more than twice as likely to live below the poverty line as those in other industries.

☆ It's great timing for the US's first immigration boost in years — but experts say Biden needs to reverse more Trump-era policies for the economy to feel the maximum effect
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

While net international migration in 2022 wasn't as high as in 2016 — the high point for immigration between 2010 to 2022 — it's still the highest since 2017. Additionally, the authors note that 2022 is the "first time net international migration increased since 2016." The US would have had about two million more immigrants if not for those policies, Insider estimated based on the average growth rate from 2011 to 2016 for net international migration. According to Peri, "the number of immigrants who can come in legally is constrained" by laws and procedures that haven't really changed. Since entering office, President Joe Biden has reversed a number of Trump's restrictive immigration policies, although a number of them are still in place.

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