Author: Brian Lund
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Borrowers have until December 31 to lock in a 1 percent student loan interest cut
The Education Department has moved the autopay enrollment deadline for a temporary 1 percent student loan interest reduction from September 30 to December 31, 2026. The student aid trade association NASFAA reported the change on September 30 and cites a count of nearly 2 million borrowers already enrolled. For a household carrying a federal loan,…
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Only the premium half of overtime pay qualifies for the deduction on a 2025 return
Time and a half is two payments in one: the regular rate for each overtime hour, plus a premium of half that rate. The IRS deduction for overtime on a 2025 return reaches only the premium half, meaning pay that exceeds the regular rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act. A pay stub’s overtime total…
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No 2027 federal pay schedule has been published, leaving next year’s raise unsettled
Federal employees who want to know what January 2027 will bring in their paychecks will find nothing official to read. The Office of Personnel Management has published pay tables through 2026 and none for 2027, and the pages read for this article show no 2027 pay order either. That leaves the size of next year’s…
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Minimum wages rise January 1 in at least five states, and Michigan workers gain $1.27 an hour
Michigan’s minimum wage moves from $13.73 to $15.00 an hour on January 1, 2027, a gain of $1.27 and the largest dollar step among the states that have announced new rates. California, Colorado, Minnesota and Ohio have each posted their own January 1 increases, and Washington added a sixth on September 30. All of the…
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Credit Acceptance will erase $634 million in car loan debt across 41 states and Washington, D.C.
Nobody has to fill in an application to receive relief under the Credit Acceptance settlement. Attorneys general in 41 states and Washington, D.C. announced that the subprime auto lender will erase $634 million in car loan debt, and the lender itself is responsible for telling borrowers who are covered. The settlement takes effect November 2,…
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The IRS says a 2025 W-2 will not break out qualified tips or overtime, leaving filers to document up to $25,000 themselves
A 2025 Form W-2 will report a worker’s wages, but the IRS has said it will not separately report qualified tips, and that qualified overtime will likely go unidentified as well. Anyone planning to claim the new deductions therefore has to rebuild the figures from other paperwork. The largest cap involved is $25,000, and every…
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AMC will pay $56,000 after the EEOC said it cut the hours of a 22-year employee with cerebral palsy
For 22 years, a man with cerebral palsy worked at an AMC movie theater in Owings Mills, Maryland. In a settlement announced Sept. 22, 2026, AMC agreed to pay $56,000 under a two-year consent decree resolving an EEOC lawsuit in which the agency alleged the chain denied him two small workplace changes and then cut…
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Mile Hi Foods will pay $1.5 million after the EEOC said it turned away Black, female and Afghan job applicants
A Denver-area food and paper products distributor has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a federal hiring-discrimination suit. The EEOC alleged that Mile Hi Foods turned away qualified Black, female and Afghan job applicants, a pattern it said dated to 2015. The agreement, announced Sept. 25, 2026, takes the form of a three-year consent…
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An Arizona benefits CEO admits taking $8.8 million from workers’ health and 401(k) plans for big-game hunts and taxidermy
Payroll deductions for health premiums and 401(k) contributions had to pass through one pooled account before reaching insurers and retirement plans, and prosecutors say that account is where the money left. James Vincent Campbell, 49, the Scottsdale, Arizona, chief executive of Axim Fringe Solutions Group, has pleaded guilty to theft from an employee benefit plan.…
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Dell is pledging $250 deposits into Trump Accounts for up to 25 million children, the program’s official site says
The Trump Accounts program’s official site carries a headline saying Michael and Susan Dell will put $250 into 25 million children’s accounts, and Dell is pledging those deposits as a private gift, not a federal one. The pledge reaches only children who meet its own rules. The federal features of the accounts appear on the…