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Los Angeles “Chief Recovery Officer” Steve Soboroff said Saturday night that he would work for free, after coming under fire for earning $500,000 for three months of work, even though his salary was to have been paid privately. Earlier in the day, as Breitbart News reported, Ambassador Ric Grenell, who is representing President Donald Trump in overseeing the recovery effort from last month’s devastating fires, criticized Soboroff harshly for his salary.

From Taylor Swift to Nicole Kidman, many high-profile female celebrities earn more than their partners. Their partners - Travis Kelce and Keith Urban - seem fairly happy with their setups, but a new study has warned that the same isn't true across the board. If you truly want a happy life, scientists from the University of Durham say it's better for the male partner to be the higher earner.

President-elect Donald Trump is refusing to accept the presidential salary again — just as he did in his first term — he told NBC’S Kristen Welker. When asked if he was planning to take the presidential salary, Trump said, “I’m not going to accept a salary, no.” “I’m giving up a lot of money. You know? You know, it amazed me that, and maybe this isn’t right, but other than George Washington — and they’re not sure about that — every President has accepted their salary, except me,” Trump said. Welker then asked if Trump accepted the pension, to which...

A recent study found there is a stark difference in what Gen Z and Boomers think about financial success. In its study published on Friday, Empower said, “Is there a secret to financial success? Most Americans (52%) say ‘yes’ — and the average salary considered successful is $270,000 per year, and $5.3 million in overall net worth.” For Gen Z, financial success looks like an annual salary of $587,797, while Boomers think it is $99,874.

On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” White House National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard responded to a question on if International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett’s large salary came up during negotiations over the port strike where higher wages were demanded by stating that “the president thought it was very important to get the two parties back together, to get the collective bargaining process back on track, to get the ports re-opened. He pushed really hard for that and he got it done.” Host Jim Acosta asked, “Lael, Daggett is facing criticism for giving — for some of these demands of his, companies...

In 2024, the median salary for the typical American home buyer has risen to $104,339 - up from $88,000 just two years prior.Despite record-high home prices, housing demand continues to outpace supply, even with mortgage rates at their highest in over a decade. As one bright spot, housing inventory is steadily increasing, with the number of homes for sale up almost 19% in May compared to the previous year. This growth in inventory could help ease the cost of home ownership looking ahead.This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Nuefeld, shows the salary needed to buy a home across the 50...

Let’s discuss the latest BLS report on employer costs with a special focus on teachers.Employer costs from the BLS, chart by MishEmployer Cost SynopsisGovernment Wages Plus Benefits: $61.27Private Wages and Benefits: $43.78Government Wages: $37.90Private Wages: $30.76Government hourly wages are 23.2 percent more than private workers on average.Benefits are the real killer.Government total compensation is 39.9 percent more than private workers.What About Teachers?Employer costs from the BLS, chart by MishTeachers make $37.90 per hour in direct wages. But they make a whopping $79.38 per hour in total benefits.Benefits for teachers are a mere 109 percent of wages.Economic FairnessEducation Week reports Biden...

Benjamin Franklin once famously quipped, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” Today, however, we can alter that to “death, taxes, and a slew of myths about teacher pay.”Leading the half-truth brigade, on March 4, a headline in My eLearning World read, “New Teachers Are Earning 20% Less Than They Were 20 Years Ago.” The piece informs us that if starting salaries for new teachers had kept pace with inflation over the last 20 years, a teacher just starting out would currently be making $53,303 per year. Instead, using data from the National...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has rejected a proposal to raise the governor’s salary with a three percent increase in the 2025 budget, asserting that an increase is “appropriate for others given the persistent inflation” but not for the governor’s salary. “I’ve spoken to legislative leaders and asked that they remove a proposed 3% increase for the Governor’s salary in next year’s budget,” DeSantis said in a statement posted to X. “While this increase is appropriate for others given the persistent inflation in the US economy, it is best to leave the Governor’s salary as is,” he said, garnering praise...

Who knew being a professor could be so lucrative? Former Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who resigned after antisemitism and plagiarism scandals which occurred under her watch, will return to the faculty and haul in close to $900,000 a year in salary. Her classes must be amazing.But guess who’s got it even better? Her replacement (at least for now), interim president Dr. Alan M. Garber, the school’s provost. He is paid around $946,000 a year for his work – but that’s only the beginning of his earnings. He made more in 2022 -- $936,000 more -- serving as a board...

She won’t be leading the Crimson, but green shouldn’t be a problem. Outgoing Harvard President Claudine Gay will still likely earn nearly $900,000 a year despite being forced to resign her position as the school’s top administrator. Political Science professor Gay — who stepped down amid a tempest of allegations she did not do enough to combat antisemitism and academic plagiarism Tuesday — will now return to a position on the Cambridge, Mass., school’s faculty. Prior to being named president just six months ago, Gay earned $879,079 as a Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean in 2021 and $824,068 in...

The House approved a measure late Tuesday that would slash Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's taxpayer-funded government salary to just $1. The bill - which was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. - was passed via voice vote Tuesday as an amendment to the 2024 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, the standalone funding bill for the General Services Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission and other related agencies. "I’m proud to announce my amendment to FIRE Pete Buttigieg just PASSED the House. Pothole Pete staged fake bike rides to the White House and used private planes funded by taxpayers...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s annual salary will be $1 if a bipartisan spending bill passed by the House becomes law. The bipartisan Homeland Security appropriations bill secured two Democrat votes from Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA). The House used a tool called the Holman rule, which allows it to alter an individual government employee’s salary. The amendment to reduce Mayorkas’s salary was introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and passed unanimously.

Walmart is paying some new store workers less than it would have three months ago, a sign that employers are seeking to cut labor costs as the once-hot market for hourly staff cools. The country’s largest private employer changed its wage structure for hourly workers in mid-July. [Snip] The wage-structure change comes after Walmart and other large employers have for years steadily raised wages and added benefits to attract workers in a tight labor market. The retailer’s latest move suggests that the stresses companies are facing in trying to find employees are easing and that they need to find ways...

It's hard for us to understand China, partly because of the very real cultural differences, and partly because China is wholly owned and operated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has never been forthcoming about the actual state of China's economy, especially where real estate is concerned.Those chickens are now coming home to roost. The CCP China's real estate bubble is popping, and the workers who build China's housing are already paying the price.Workers for a major Chinese developer are going without pay, and job sites are going unfinished as the Chinese real estate market struggles, according to...

Signing a contract for a six-figure contract used to allow Americans to feel as though they had made it. But now, $100,000 salary only goes so far — and its worth varies from city to city. Across major U.S. cities, $100,000 can be worth as much as $86,444 and as little as $35,791, a recent SmartAsset study finds. The study compares the value of $100,000 across 76 major U.S. cities, accounting for cities' income taxes and cost of living. Cities in the South, from Tennessee to Texas, dominated the top 10 cities where $100,000 goes the furthest. In Memphis, Tennessee,...

As you’ve likely already heard, Facebook’s parent company Meta is laying off large numbers of people in an effort to remain financially viable. This stressful situation has been exacerbated by the absence of much of its management who are working remotely, some from other countries. How could things have possibly gone so far downhill so quickly? Do you suppose there might have been something less than ideal about their business practices and how they managed their workforce? Perhaps that idea will resonate a bit more after you hear from Madelyn Machado, who was a recruiter for Meta earning an eye-popping...

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court noted that the case hinged on the issue of whether Hewitt, whose job is called tool pusher, was paid on a salary basis.

It looks like my colleague Jazz Shaw first wrote about Dan Price back in August of 2015. Price is the Seattle CEO Gravity Payments who made a lot of news when he announced he’d be paying his employees a minimum of $70,000 each and cut his own salary from just over a million dollars a year to $70,000.Dan became a mini-celebrity for these efforts. Esquire called him a “folk hero for the age of inequality.” In a separate story published in 2016, Esquire reported that Price’s background and motive weren’t as pure as it may have appeared.In a TEDx Talk...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday announced that the House will now require staffers to get paid a minimum salary of $45,000. “I am pleased to announce that, pursuant to the statutory authority of the Speaker in 2 U.S.C. 4532, the House will for the first time ever set the minimum annual pay for staff at $45,000,” Pelosi wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter, first reported by Punchbowl News.