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☆ Why are you suddenly being asked to tip more? It could be because workers are getting more expensive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | Andy Kiersz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

More and more businesses are asking customers to tip. It's driven in part by the spread of digital payment technologies that include prompts to tip workers. Workers are getting more expensive, and tips help cover the costBusinesses relying on tips to help pay their workers is far from a new phenomenon — particularly in the restaurant industry. One potential reason service businesses are warming up to tipping is that they're under particular pressure to keep labor costs in check. In recent years, many service businesses have struggled to attract workers and been forced to raise pay considerably as a result.

☆ Blue-collar workers could save the US from recession as the tech industry withers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Andy Kiersz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

After a pandemic-era tech jobs boom — and now bust — more and more Americans are returning to blue-collar work for better pay and more security. As AI stands poised to potentially remake white-collar work, blue-collar work may emerge even more resilient. The Biden administration has been devoted to turning that around, pouring billions into projects devoted to bringing manufacturing jobs back stateside. And another key to the puzzle is treating blue-collar work with respect, like any other work — including high-paying tech jobs. Are you thinking of taking the plunge into blue-collar work, or have you already?

☆ $7.25 federal minimum wage is a 'national disgrace,' says Sen. Bernie Sanders, backing push for $17/hour
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks on raising the federal minimum wage outside the U.S. Capitol on May 4, 2023. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images News | Getty Images13 states have approved a $15 minimum wageToday, 13 states have approved a $15 minimum wage, Sanders said. Sen. Bernie Sanders Independent U.S. senator from VermontDemocrats had pursued raising the federal minimum wage in recent years, though those efforts stalled. When President Joe Biden took office, he promised to address the federal minimum wage in his first 100 days, Blalock recalled. 'A weak minimum wage is bad for the overall economy'Opponents to raising the minimum wage cite the higher costs those increases would put on businesses.

☆ What the April jobs report means for you, your employer, and the Fed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Minneapolis CNN —High prices, rising interest rates and banking uncertainty be damned: The US labor market is still chugging right along. “The American labor market right now is simply unstoppable,” RSM economist Joseph Brusuelas wrote in a note Friday. “This is what a soft landing would look like, with job growth gradually slowing to a more sustainable pace,” Faucher added. The milestone comes just three years after the Covid-19 pandemic caused mass layoffs that pushed the Black unemployment rate as high as 16.8%. “Make no mistake, the Black [unemployment] rate is still too high,” Shierholz tweeted.

☆ Unemployment rate sinks in April for Black and Hispanic workers, but holds steady for Asians
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Darla Mercado | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The unemployment rate slipped for Black and Hispanic workers in April, but it remained stable for Asian workers. The U.S. unemployment rate inched down to 3.4% last month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment dipped sharply for Black workers, declining to 4.7% in April from 5% in the previous month. For Asians, the unemployment rate held steady at 2.8%, the same as it was in March. With the overall unemployment rate under 4%, the difference in rates between racial demographic groups is also narrowing, she added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is introducing a bill on Thursday to raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25, and it's remained unchanged since 2008. Sanders has long pushed for a higher federal minimum wage, although he's been more recently stymied by centrist Democrats. Scott said in a statement at the time that even before the pandemic, "the $7.25 federal minimum wage was economically and morally indefensible." Mandating a $15 minimum wage would put many of them out of business."

☆ Why Prices, Inflation Are Still Soaring: Corporate Price Gouging
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

While many of the problems that helped trigger the upward spiral have abated, prices are still high and getting higher. The idea that companies are taking advantage of disruptions to push price increases on consumers has many names — greedflation, excuseflation, price gouging, corporate profiteering — but the gist is the same. Supply-chain issues and other disruptions made sense as drivers of higher prices, Chris Becker, a senior economist and the associate director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, told me. "Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge." Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge.

☆ Your town might be sitting on pandemic cash it could use to build a grocery store or launch a guaranteed-basic-income pilot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

They told him they were walking from their homes to Kroger, the nearest grocery store — which was at least a 25- to 30-minute walk. That got Miller thinking about building a grocery store, or even just a shed to sell fresh food from at a lower cost. He learned the city land committee had taken over the abandoned structure and that, way back when, it had been a grocery store called Abraham Grocery. Courtesy of Dural MillerNow, starting in November, it'll be a new grocery store, Miss Ruby's Corner Market, to serve the community. Baltimore, for instance, has used American Rescue Plan funds to give out guaranteed income to young parents for two years.

☆ Google CEO Sundar Pichai made $226 million last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Google’s parent company Alphabet, made nearly $226 million in 2022, according to a new filing from Alphabet. It is a big boost for Pichai, who made just over $6 million in 2021 and $7.4 million in 2020. Pichai’s stock boosts come every three years, in 2019 he received a similar package of $281 million. Ballooning CEO compensation has been a controversial topic in recent years. The vast majority of Cook’s 2022 compensation — about 75% — was tied up in company shares, with half dependent on share price performance.

☆ CEO who went viral for 'pity city' comment on bonuses apologizes to staff: 'I feel terrible that my rallying cry seemed insensitive'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

MillerKnoll CEO Andrea Owen apologized to staff for comments that "seemed insensitive." In a companywide email, Owen said her comments on bonuses "landed in a way that I did not intend." Andrea Owen, the CEO of furniture company MillerKnoll, apologized to staff in a companywide email after a video of her responding to employee questions about staying motivated while potentially losing their bonuses went viral. "I want to be transparent and empathetic, and as I continue to reflect on this instance, I feel terrible that my rallying cry seemed insensitive," Owen said in an email to staff. I want to be transparent and empathetic, and as I continue to reflect on this instance, I feel terrible that my rallying cry seemed insensitive.

☆ Black Americans are more likely to be working than white Americans for the first time on record
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Jason Lalljee | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In March, the Black employment-population ratio was above the white employment-population ratio for the first time since at least 1972. The unemployment rate for Black Americans also hit a record low of 5.0% in March. The employment-population ratio measures the share of a group that has a job, meaning that for the first time on record, Black Americans are more likely to currently be working than white Americans. Additionally, the unemployment rate for Black Americans fell by 0.7 percentage points to 5.0% in March, the lowest rate on record, according to Black unemployment data starting in 1972. Which is what makes March's low unemployment rate for Black Americans, and a higher employment-population ratio than the white employment-population ratio, so novel.

☆ The Fed could easily drive Black unemployment much higher than the overall jobless rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

However, the jobless rate isn’t expected to be that low for long. While that’s a small improvement from the central bank’s previous 4.6% jobless rate estimate, economists say it’s possible the unemployment rate could rise above the Fed’s expectations. It can be difficult to slow an unemployment spiralEconomists say it’s hard to guess the trajectory of the unemployment rate this year, noting it could very well exceed the Fed’s estimate. As such, the Fed’s tightening efforts could easily drive the Black unemployment rate much higher than the overall jobless rate, said William Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and chief economist to the AFL-CIO. The Black unemployment rate will easily get to 9% in that scenario.”One other likely consequence of growing unemployment is slowing wage growth, Bivens said.

☆ Why so many Americans hate their work hours
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Lower-income workers want to work more, and higher-income workers want to work less. In fact, nearly a quarter of low-income workers making less than $47,000 a year want to work more hours. On the flipside, almost a third of middle- and high-income workers say they work too many hours, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday. Workers are left either wanting to work more but can't get the hours, or they want to work less but feel they shouldn't. When surveyed, lower-income workers would likely jump at the opportunity to work more hours to earn more.

☆ Hard work just doesn't pay like it used to
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Ethan Dodd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Today's workers, especially gig workers, don't have the security that hard work once promised. Fueling the pessimism about hard work might be that Americans have "been doing nothing but hard work for the last two decades," Jennifer Klein, a Yale labor historian, told Insider. Blame the rise of gig work for hard work not paying offThough Americans work fewer hours now than they have in years past, they're working harder than ever. As a result, "people have experienced hard work and intensified work, but in very, very unpleasant and not particularly rewarding terms," she added. However, deregulation of employment and the dismantling of the New Deal structures of fair work have decoupled hard work and security, Klein said.

☆ Column: The new US Social Security forecast: what it means for retirees
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Mark Miller | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But if the headlines stemming from the annual report of the Social Security trustees jangled you, take a deep breath. The report, released on March 31, forecasts that the Social Security retirement trust fund reserves will be depleted in 2033. What does the new Social Security forecast mean for current and future retirees? But the trust fund also can accumulate balances when Social Security runs surpluses, as has been the case for the last several decades. A: Social Security collects FICA contributions only up to a certain level of wages - $160,200 this year.

☆ Dollar General has close to 20,000 stores across the US. Here's how it keeps prices so low.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Dollar General sells items at 20% to 40% less than full-price retailers, with most under $10. Dollar General, one of the best-known discount chains, is growing rapidly and now has more than 19,000 stores across the US. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesDollar General leases – rather than owns – most of its stores, which helps it to keep costs down. According to a 2021 survey done by the nonprofit think tank, Economic Policy Institute, 92% of Dollar General workers earn less than $15 an hour. It has a limited assortment of groceries, though this is on the riseThe fresh food section at a Dollar General store.

☆ Pay for low-wage workers grew 'tremendously fast' in the last 3 years—but experts don't think it'll last
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

It's the biggest hike they've seen in decades as measured by business cycles, which are periods of economic growth followed by a contraction and possible recession. "This finding really popped out at me that low wage workers saw this tremendously fast wage growth over the last three years," says Elise Gould, senior economist at EPI and co-author of the report. These were especially crucial for those in low wage industries like leisure hospitality that were hit the hardest. When jobs eventually did come back, workers looked for the best offers they could find, and otherwise "demanded more." The pool of applicants was smallerThe pool of workers seeking out low-wage jobs also got smaller during the pandemic, giving those remaining more leverage.

☆ Low-wage workers got big raises during the pandemic. Now that's coming to an end.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute analyzes wage growth from 2019 to 2022. Researchers found that the lowest-earners saw the highest real wage growth out of the groups analyzed. That growing pay was due to pandemic policy and need for workers, but those policies have ended. EPI looked at how the real wage growth of 9.0% for the lowest-paid workers compared to earlier business cycles and recessions. While it might sound counterintuitive that job losses lead to higher wages, EPI identifies this phenomenon as something called "severed monopsony."

☆ New bill in Congress would give U.S. teachers a $60,000 minimum wage—these 5 states currently pay teachers best
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced the Pay Teachers Act last week, aiming to set a national minimum salary for public school teachers at $60,000 using federal funds. It's unclear if either bill has a chance at passing through Congress and how quickly that could happen. Currently, the average salary for teachers in 37 states and the District of Columbia sits below $60,000, according to WalletHub research. Teacher salaries vary widely depending on where you live. Teaching in New York, the highest-paying state, could mean earning roughly $33,000 more than teaching in Hawaii, the state with the lowest average teacher salary.

Overall, the budget would increase federal spending in the twelve months starting in October to $6.8 trillion from the $6.2 trillion expected to be spent in the current fiscal year. Biden's budget proposal faces stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers emboldened by winning control of the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections. Biden, asked for areas of possible compromise with Republicans, told reporters at the White House: "We'll see what their budget is." Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget advocacy group, said the budget did not go nearly far enough to rein in dangerous debt levels. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan Washington think tank, said Biden deserved credit for for putting forward $3 trillion in deficit reduction.

☆ As Social Security reform talks heat up, changes to the retirement age, payroll tax may be on the table
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A recent Congressional Budget Office report projected Social Security's combined funds may run out in 2033, two years sooner than the Social Security actuaries estimated last year. Raising retirement age may be a 20% benefit cutThe Social Security full retirement age is gradually changing to 67, based on changes enacted in 1983. Lawmakers are considering raising the full retirement age again to age 70. Current beneficiaries and near retirees would likely be spared from any retirement age changes. Warren and Sanders are calling for reapplying the Social Security payroll tax to income over $250,000, while also taxing certain business and investment income at 12.4%.

☆ 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.

☆ Over 100,000 workers walked out in 2022, showing that Americans' demands for better conditions aren't going away
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

About 120,000 workers walked out of the job in 2022 — roughly 40,000 more than in 2021. Per new Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the number of major work stoppages that began in 2022 was higher than in 2021. Other data suggests that work stoppages of all sizes soared in 2022. All told, even BLS's official accounting of major stoppages shows an increased appetite for walking out. However, it still pales in comparison to previous highs; in 1952, the year with the highest recorded number of major stoppages, there were 470 walkouts.

☆ CNBC Daily Open: The Fed wants inflation at 2%. But the economy might be fine with higher inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

But the economy may be fine with higher inflation. The 2% inflation target has been repeated so often by Fed officials and central bankers worldwide that it seems absolutely crucial to a healthy economy. But "the 2% inflation target, it's relatively arbitrary," said Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute. In 1991, Canada announced its inflation target; the United Kingdom followed a year later. But if the 2% target is arbitrary, it implies that the economy could function normally at a higher level of inflation.

☆ CNBC Daily Open: The Fed wants inflation at 2%. But the economy may be fine with higher inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Yeo Boon Ping | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

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