Author: Brian Lund
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Federal student loan borrowers who enroll in autopay by September 30 get a 1 percentage point rate cut through June 30, 2028
Federal student loan borrowers have until the end of this month to lock in a temporarily larger interest-rate discount just for paying automatically. The Education Department is offering a 1 percentage point rate reduction to borrowers enrolled in autopay, more than four times the discount that normally applies, but only to those who sign up…
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Logistics company Exel will pay $80,000 to settle an EEOC disability lawsuit
Logistics company Exel Inc., which operates as DHL Supply Chain in the United States, has agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a federal lawsuit accusing it of denying a disability accommodation to a temporary employee and then excluding her from permanent hiring. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement this week following a case…
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Mayo Clinic will pay $50,000 in an EEOC suit over a COVID vaccine religious accommodation
Mayo Clinic has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit accusing the health system of illegally denying a security guard’s request for a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The settlement, announced this week by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, closes a case that traces back to a vaccine policy Mayo put…
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Denver’s minimum wage climbs to $19.84 an hour in 2027
Denver’s citywide minimum wage will rise to $19.84 an hour on January 1, 2027, keeping the city’s wage floor well above the rate that applies across the rest of Colorado. The increase comes from a separate city formula, not the state’s own annual adjustment, which is why Denver’s minimum wage has moved on a different…
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Colorado’s tipped minimum wage rises to $12.69 an hour in 2027
Colorado’s tipped workers will see their guaranteed base wage climb to $12.69 an hour starting January 1, 2027, under the annual adjustment the state’s labor department just announced. The increase moves in step with a larger statewide minimum-wage change that touches every hourly worker in Colorado, not only those who earn tips. For servers, bartenders…
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Democrats’ FAIR Act would give federal workers a 4.1% raise in 2027 instead of the pay freeze in Trump’s plan
Two competing plans for federal civilian pay in 2027 are moving through Washington at the same time, and only one of them can take effect without a new law passing. A pay freeze proposed by President Trump is on track to become the default rate for most civilian federal employees, while a Democratic bill promising…
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Kentucky’s new jobless claims rose by 1,041 in a week on manufacturing layoffs, while the national count fell to 197,000
The Labor Department’s weekly unemployment report released Thursday showed the nation’s layoff count easing even as one state’s climbed sharply. Nationally, seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims fell to 197,000 for the week, a decrease of 1,000 from the prior week’s revised level. Kentucky moved in the opposite direction, with new claims in the state rising…
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The Trump administration’s layoff rule now ranks federal workers by performance before seniority
Federal agencies planning a staff reduction must now rank employees chiefly by job performance, not by years of service, under a final rule the Office of Personnel Management published in the Federal Register. The rule took effect September 2, 2026, and rewrites the order in which employees line up on an agency’s retention register once…
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Arizona’s minimum wage is expected to rise 50 cents to $15.65 an hour in January under the state’s inflation formula
Arizona’s next minimum-wage adjustment is not yet official, but the arithmetic behind it is public. Under a formula written into state law, the Industrial Commission of Arizona raises the wage floor every January by the percentage the Consumer Price Index rose over the prior August-to-August period, then rounds the result to the nearest five cents.…
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The 2027-28 FAFSA opens by October 1, and some people who already have a bachelor’s degree can now get Pell Grants for job training
Federal Student Aid plans to open the 2027-28 Free Application for Federal Student Aid to every applicant no later than Oct. 1, 2026, and the form arrives with a change that breaks from a long-standing Pell Grant rule. For the first time, some applicants who already hold a bachelor’s degree, ordinarily disqualifying under the Pell…