Free Republic

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.

Americans have lost jobs by the millions as the coronavirus pandemic continues to bludgeon the U.S. economy. However, many jobless workers stand to reap a financial benefit from their layoffs. Some could more than double their prior salaries.The distortion results from the $2.2 trillion economic relief bill enacted in March, which boosted jobless benefits to a level unseen since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s.Around 40% of all workers could theoretically earn more while unemployed than going back to work, according to an analysis by Noah Williams, director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy...

David Parker is the CEO of Covenant Logistics and he was blunt with analysts who follow the company on its earnings call Tuesday.“How do we get enough drivers?” he said in response to a question from Stephens analyst Jack Atkins. “I don’t know.”Parker then gave an overview of the situation facing Covenant, and by extension other companies, in trying to recruit drivers. One problem: With rates so high, companies are encountering the fact that a driver doesn’t need to work a full schedule to pull in a decent salary.“We’re finding out that just to get a driver, let’s say the...

While COVID-19 slowed hiring across the country for much of the past 13 months, many companies are still actively searching for eager college graduates and entry-level employees to fill a range of internship roles. And some of these roles pay top dollar. Our Economic Research team pulled together a list of the 25 Highest Paying Internships for 2021, identifying companies with the highest monthly median base pay for interns as reported by the U.S.-based interns on Glassdoor during the pandemic (between March 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021). TOP FIVE1. NVIDIA Median Monthly Pay: $8,811 2. Facebook Median Monthly Pay:...

Being an NBA referee is a harder job than many people think, no matter how many fans believe they could do a better job or that their "grandma could have made a better call." They can be a team's hero or their greatest nightmare, depending on the night's call. An NBA referee needs to be confident, stern, smart, and aware to make a call in a high-pressure environment with 20,000 fans cheering or booing at them. An underrated aspect of a referee is the physical fitness that they need to maintain during a game. Refs need to run up and...

California megachurch Pastor John MacArthur’s ministry denied he makes more than $500,000 annually from his Grace to You media ministry and defended the stewardship of his collective ministries' finances on Tuesday after a recent report suggested his private lifestyle belies the modesty he preaches at the pulpit.“The questions and quibbling innuendo that have been published on the Internet regarding John MacArthur’s income and stewardship are rooted in misinformation. For example, a report has been floating around online for some time that John makes more than half a million dollars annually from GTY. Totally false,” Phil Johnson, GTY executive director and...

Like many American business owners, Donald Trump took a huge financial hit in COVID America in the past year. But since leaving office, we’re getting a look at how much worse things have gotten for him.At the White House, Trump worked for free, donating his $400,000 yearly salary to charities and government programs. In civilian life, his companies, run by his kids while he was in the White House, were bleeding money, according to financial disclosure forms he filed before leaving office.The Washington Post reported:Financial disclosure forms … revealed that his hotels, resorts and other properties had lost more than...

In a 2016 interview with Lisa Stahl, Trump did something only two presidents in history have ever done. He affirmed he would be serving without pay. By accepting only $1 each year (as required by law), he joins Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as the only two presidents who served and defended solely from Love of Country. Actually, when he made the promise, Trump had no idea how much the President is paid. (Isn't that adorable!?! Runs for the job. Has no idea what it pays!) By serving for free, he proves yet again that America is his sole...

Can you have a job with high satisfaction that also pays six figures? What about first-time job hunters? The answer to both questions is, “Yes.” If you choose wisely. The jobs environment is getting rosier, at least judging by the latest jobs figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.5% in December and remained near a 50-year low. The labor force participation rate was 63.2% in December, unchanged from the previous month, helped by an increase in women aged 25 to 34 looking for work and/or getting jobs. The 2019 best job for college...

Cybersecurity expertise might be the key to a generous salary, according to a new ranking of company salaries.Palo Alto Networks tops a list of the 25 highest paying companies in America from career site Glassdoor, coming in with a median salary of $170,929. That puts it ahead of Nvidia, where the average employee takes home $170,068 per year.Here's how the rest of the Top 10 shakes out, with median total salaries listed. Palo Alto Networks: $170,929Nvidia: $170,068Twitter: $162,852Gilead Sciences: $162,210Google: $161,254VMware: $158,063LinkedIn: $157,402Facebook: $152,962Salesforce: $150,379Microsoft: $148,068 (See the complete list on Glassdoor.)Tech companies dominate the list and many are based...

I fear the only fair solution is to pay our garbage national men’s team more.No, actually, this is more complicated than it seems at first glance. According to a letter released Monday by U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro, the federation paid out $34.1 million in salary and game bonuses to the women between 2010 and 2018 as opposed to $26.4 million paid to the men. The total does not include the value of benefits received only by the women, like health care…Comparing compensation between the two teams is difficult because the pay structure is based on different collective bargaining...

Sacramento California’s cities, counties, and public agencies have secured a record tax windfall in recent years, as property tax collections soar, yet they continue to cry poor-mouth. There’s not enough money, they say, to provide adequate public services. Government officials and public-sector unions already have hatched a plan for the 2020 ballot that would dramatically raise property tax on commercial property owners by undermining Proposition 13’s tax protections. But a new report from the Orange County Register’s Teri Sforza hints at why these agencies never have enough money to do their jobs. Based on data from the state controller’s office,...

The federal government plans to collect pay data by race, ethnicity and gender from businesses by Sept. 30. Any business with over 100 employees will have to provide this data. It will use it to develop a pay equity analysis to combat discrimination. President Donald Trump's administration failed to block this collection in federal court, clearing the path for this action. Business groups have supported Trump's efforts to stop this reporting to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). They have complained of technical challenges in bridging HR information systems with payroll data. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said pay...

When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups, it found that more men than women were receiving less money for doing similar work. The surprising conclusion to the latest version of the annual study contrasted sharply with the experience of women working in Silicon Valley and in many other industries. In response to the finding, Google gave $9.7 million in additional compensation to 10,677 employees for this year. Men account for about 69 percent of the company’s work force, but they received a disproportionately higher percentage of the money....