Category: Paychecks & Work
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Pay after inflation fell 3.1 percent in the spring even as hourly wages rose
A 2.7 percent raise sounds like real progress until the same government report that measured it also measures what that raise could actually buy. For the second quarter of 2026, the two numbers point in opposite directions, and the gap between them is the story. The Gap Between the Raise You See and the Raise…
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Workers’ share of what they produce fell to 52.9 percent, the lowest since 1947
The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps a single number that answers a question most paychecks can’t: out of everything the economy actually produces, how much of it ends up in workers’ pockets rather than somewhere else. That number just hit its lowest point in a series that stretches back to 1947, and the agency that…
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A White House plan would freeze federal pay next year, canceling a 3.1 percent raise
Every autumn, a decades-old formula quietly tells federal agencies how much General Schedule employees are due to see in their paychecks the following January. For 2027, that formula pointed toward a 3.1 percent across-the-board raise on top of a locality pay adjustment averaging 20.6 percent nationwide. On August 26, the White House sent Congress an…
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Disney is offering buyouts to executives at least 50 years old with ten years of service
Disney is offering a group of its longest-tenured executives a way to leave voluntarily, with enhanced benefits, rather than wait to see whether they are caught in the next round of job cuts. An internal memo circulated August 24 opens the offer to executives who are at least 50 years old and have worked at…
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Starbucks is cutting more than 200 corporate jobs, and about 120 refused a move to Nashville
Starbucks is cutting more than 200 corporate positions at its Seattle headquarters, and more than half of that group is not a typical layoff at all — it is a group of employees who were asked to relocate to a new company office in Nashville and said no. A WARN notice filed around August 20…
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American Airlines will pay $200,000 to a blind employee it kept on unpaid leave nearly four years
A former American Airlines reservations agent who lost her eyesight in an accident spent nearly four years on unpaid leave before the airline fired her, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency announced on August 28 that American Airlines will pay $200,000 to resolve the case, along with a set of commitments…
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Three Baton Rouge restaurants owe 36 workers $101,125, about $2,809 apiece
Thirty-six restaurant workers in the Baton Rouge area are owed money after federal investigators found their employers had been quietly routing part of their tips to people who were never supposed to see them. Three locations run by the same ownership group — Umami Japanese Bistro in Baton Rouge and two Geisha, Sushi with a…
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A South Carolina restaurant chain paid $618,666 to 779 workers over a tip pool that included managers
Investigators went looking for unpaid overtime at a South Carolina restaurant company and found something else stacked on top: managers with their hands in the same tip pool that servers, bartenders and bussers were splitting after their shifts. When the U.S. Department of Labor finished counting, the bill came to $618,666 in back wages for…
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Apple will pay $150,000 to a worker fired after asking for the Sabbath off
A federal lawsuit over a Virginia Apple Store employee’s request for two days off a week to observe his faith has ended in a $150,000 settlement. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that Apple Inc. agreed to pay the money and update its religious-accommodation policies after the agency accused the company of denying a…
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Fifty-one strikers will split $3.66 million after a company refused to take them back, about $71,813 each
After a six-year-old labor dispute in a small Pennsylvania town, the National Labor Relations Board has just announced one of the larger strike settlements it has issued this year. Langeloth Metallurgical Company will pay $3,662,485 to 51 former strikers after the Board’s Region 6 found the company illegally slow-walked or refused to bring workers back…