Category: Paychecks & Work
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A proposed rule would let 2 million federal workers file discrimination complaints directly
The federal government’s in-house discrimination watchdog wants to tear up the rulebook it has used for years to process complaints from its own workforce. On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted to issue a proposed rule rewriting how federal employees and job applicants report workplace discrimination, and the change would eventually…
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Employer health costs rose 6 percent over the year while private wages rose 3.1 percent
Employer-provided health benefits got 6.0 percent more expensive for private-sector businesses over the year ending in June 2026, while the wages those same employers paid workers climbed just 3.1 percent, according to new federal data. For a household counting on a raise to keep pace with the cost of living, the gap matters: the fastest-growing…
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Pearson will pay $150,000 after blind employees could not read their own benefits records
Pearson Education has agreed to pay $150,000 to close out a federal disability-discrimination case built around a simple complaint: employees who are blind or have low vision said they could not get into the same online systems everyone else used to check benefits, leave balances and required training. The settlement, announced by the U.S. Equal…
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A disability services provider will pay $65,000 after rejecting a deaf applicant for a housekeeping job
An Indianapolis provider of residential services for people with developmental disabilities will pay $65,000 to resolve a federal lawsuit accusing it of rejecting a job applicant because he is deaf. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Damar Services, Inc. after a single phone interview in 2023 in which, the agency says, staff learned the…
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A senior living operator will pay $250,000 to women it left facing harassment from residents
A company that manages six senior living communities in Arizona has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a federal lawsuit accusing it of leaving female employees to deal with repeated sexual harassment from residents on its own. The case, brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Christian Care Management, Inc. (CCMI), centers on…
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Federal law still allows no overtime on a $35,568 salary, while California’s line rises to $72,384
Two salaried workers doing the same job for the same pay can have very different rights to overtime, depending only on which state they live in. Under federal law, a salaried employee who earns as little as $35,568 a year can be classified as “exempt” and denied overtime pay entirely, no matter how many extra…
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A federal proposal would make it easier to call a worker an independent contractor
Independent contractor status sounds like a technical HR label, but it decides three very concrete things: whether a worker is guaranteed the federal minimum wage, whether they are owed overtime, and whether they can take job-protected leave. A new Department of Labor proposal would redraw the line between contractor and employee, making it easier for…
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The EEOC says Family Dollar fired a pregnant worker over a doctor’s note she could not get
A federal agency says a North Carolina store manager gave a pregnant employee hours to produce a doctor’s note on New Year’s Eve, then fired her when she couldn’t get one in time. The case, filed as a lawsuit rather than settled quietly, is a reminder of a federal law many hourly workers and their…
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Ford will pay $2.3 million over racist graffiti at a Buffalo plant, and former workers can come forward
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced this week that Ford Motor Company has agreed to pay $2.3 million to resolve a years-long harassment investigation tied to its stamping plant near Buffalo, New York. Investigators found reasonable cause to believe workers there were exposed to racist and ethnically targeted graffiti in bathrooms and break rooms,…
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Artificial intelligence was the top stated reason for layoffs for a fifth straight month
For the fifth month in a row, U.S. employers explaining why they cut jobs pointed to artificial intelligence more than any other reason. That isn’t a worker survey or an economist’s estimate — it’s what companies themselves wrote down when they announced the cuts, tracked by the outplacement firm that has logged layoff reasons since…
