The proposed initiative, supported by the Service Employees International Union’s state council, would boost the base wage to $15 per hour by 2020, and mandate six paid sick days a year. The current $9-an-hour minimum wage is scheduled to increase to $10 on Jan. 1.
China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.
Perhaps because of their economics background, Ms. Case and Mr. Deaton theorized that this overdose epidemic may be tied—at least in part—to “economic insecurity.” This claim is hard to establish but, seeing how Mr. Deaton won the Nobel Prize in economics less than a month ago, worth considering in detail.
For decades, the U.S. government has used the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) to calculate several of the most important measures of national well-being. The CPS reaches roughly 100,000 households each year and captures important information about poverty and other things. And that’s a problem, because, over time, the survey has become a misrepresentation of what is actually happening.
Private sector employment increased by 182,000 jobs from September to October according to the October ADP National Employment Report®.
U.S. employers, slow to reward workers with higher pay, have been quicker in recent years to offer signing bonuses, more paid time off and other perks.
The challenge for employers is not only the cost of higher wages or paid sick time. Multistate employers compelled to monitor new developments in thousands of cities instead of 50 states find the task overwhelming. Employers also have to track where each of their employees lives, or moves to, and works. Complying with the three-tiered patchwork of federal, state and local regulation means more opportunity for contradiction, as some laws’ requirements are the opposite of other laws. Changing a national payroll system to comply with the paid sick-leave ordinance in Passaic, N.J., might violate the law in San Francisco.
American consumers edged up their spending in September at the slowest pace since January, suggesting slowing job creation and economic turmoil overseas may be introducing some caution into purchasing habits. . . Personal income, reflecting Americans’ pretax earnings from salaries and investments, climbed 0.1% in September. That was the smallest increase since March.
The regulation, known as the Statewide Truck and Bus Rule, carried an estimated price tag of $10 billion. If you were wondering why everything moved by truck in California is more expensive, it’s because you’re paying that bill. A little of the cost is passed along in the price of everything from furniture to strawberries.
Personal income increased $18.6 billion, or 0.1 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $19.2 billion, or 0.1 percent, in September, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $15.6 billion, or 0.1 percent. In August, personal income increased $54.9 billion, or 0.4 percent, DPI increased $49.5 billion, or 0.4 percent, and PCE increased $44.2 billion, or 0.4 percent, based on revised estimates.
“Our California Economic Activity Index ticked down again in August, after a small decline in July,” said Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “Six out of eight components were negative for the month, including the tech sector stock market index, state exports and housing starts. Much of the drag on the headline index came from factors originating outside of the state. U.S. stock market volatility increased in August with the sell-off in China. Also, the strong dollar is putting pressure on exports to international markets. House prices were neutral in August. Nonfarm payroll employment was the lone, but very important, positive contributor to our August index. Year-over-year job growth in California, at 3 percent in August, remains about a percentage point stronger than the U.S. average,” Dye said.
U. S. economic growth cooled in the third quarter as firms let inventories dwindle and the pace of spending on the part of consumers, businesses and governments all decelerated.
California policy is dominated by a rich coastal elite who control most of the media, finance campaigns, rule over the universities and generally dominate all discussion. The result is extreme inequality, persistent nation-leading poverty, high housing costs, and limited opportunity for California’s most disadvantaged populations. And, California’s most disadvantaged will pay the most for California’s next downturn. They won’t write checks, because they can’t. Their net worth won’t decline, because it’s already at or below zero. They’ll pay a far higher cost in broken homes, broken families, and broken lives.
But if our schools aren’t performing particularly well, those who run the schools are again demonstrating their unmatched ability to make excuses for failure.
U. S. economic growth cooled in the third quarter as firms let inventories dwindle and the pace of spending on the part of consumers, businesses and governments all decelerated.