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š Pay transparency on the rise š
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Good Afternoon Party People! š
Wendyās recently announced a surge-based pricing model for their fast food restaurants.
The dynamic pricing model will take into account variables like time of day, demand, etc to change menu prices in real-time - similar to Uber and Lyft.
Nothing like a $26 burger and fries from Wendyās.
Son of a baconator!
PARTY PLAN š
š² Pay transparency
š Return-to-office bluff?
š Did your loans just get erased?
And, of course, MEMES!
MEME OF THE DAY
PAY
Pay Transparency on the Rise
Multiple states have recently passed laws around pay transparency in job postings.
So far, only Colorado has fined employers for violations, but it looks like other states may ramp up the enforcement with the help of career sites like Monster and CareerBuilder.
30 employers from Colorado, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York state, Washington state, and Washington D.C. have faced complaints alleging violations of recently passed pay transparency laws.
So far, enforcement agencies have focused on urging employers to comply with the law rather than issuing penalties.
āPlease just listen to us!ā
But some companies have already faced some repercussionsā¦
Colorado has publicly disclosed fines to Lockheed Martin and X (twitter) for violations of the law, and Qdoba settled a lawsuit for similar violations.
Indeed has already updated policies to require pay ranges wherever itās mandated by law. Monster, CareerBuilder, and ZipRecruiter say theyāre aware of violations but havenāt made any policy changes as of Feb 26.
Half of all jobs on Indeed contained pay ranges in 2023, and in states with salary transparency laws like Colorado, that number was as high as 81%.
(19% are still breaking the law!)
The law is useful for applicants. No one wants to waste time applying for jobs where the salary is a mystery.
But, the ambiguous enforcement of the law isnāt greatā¦and neither are ridiculous salary ranges ($49,000-$750,000).
REMOTE WORK
Bluffing About RTO?
On the surface, it seems like the pandemic-era workplace flexibility is coming to an end.
However, Fortune and Yahoo Finance say that companies with RTO mandates may be bluffing.
Yahoo Finance says companies simply donāt have the office space they need to facilitate mass return-to-office mandates.
āBusinesses are probably being overly ambitious with their RTO orders with the expectation that the targets will never be met by staff. Our experience is that companies, frankly, will say a day longer than what they expect because they just know about human behaviors and patterns, and travel and sick days and holidays. So when we see a company say four days a week back in the office, usually they're expecting around three, so that means they're now going to be planning their portfolio, their footprint, and the type of space they need around that three day a week model.ā
According to data from last year, the real estate CEOās analysis checks out. In a survey published last June, half of the worldās biggest companies were planning to reduce office space by 10-20%.
Experts like Sue Aspey Price say that if everyone actually followed through with RTO mandates, there simply wouldnāt be near enough office space for everyone.
Beauty company LāOreal just ordered all workers back to the office after CEO Nicolas Hieronimus claimed remote workers have āabsolutely no attachment, no passion, no creativity.ā Take a hike Nicky!!
Deutsche Bank just ordered managers back into the office 4 days a week and all other employees at least 3 days a week, with the added twist that everyone has to be in office on Mondays and Fridays.
This comes even after the bank publicized a study that 87% of workers felt productive under the hybrid model of 2-3 days per week in the office. And after they announced that theyād be cutting office space by nearly 40% in some locations.
So wtf is going on?! Some people are accusing companies of using return-to-office mandates in place of layoffs to avoid bad publicity and severance packages.
The RTO power struggle continues.
COLLEGE
$1.2B in Student Loans Evaporated
153,000 people just got PAID!! Well, kind of.
Last Wednesday, The White House approved $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness for borrowers with low balances who enrolled in the new SAVE plan.
Borrowers lucky enough to receive the debt forgiveness got an email addressed from President Biden letting them know that all or a portion of their federal student loans would be forgiven.
To qualify, borrowers must have:
Enrolled in the SAVE plan
Borrowed less than $12,000 in federal student loans (thatās like one semester smh)
Spent at least 10 years in repayment
$12k or less, 10 years in repayment, 153k people, equals $1.2 billy?? The math aināt mathinā! Still, great news for the people who did qualify!
Experts predict that the reduction in debt for so many people could lead to a jolt in the economy and labor market with fewer people dependent on their current jobs.
Time will tell!
For more, check out NerdWallet.
PARTY FAVORS š
More time with the doggos!
Layoffs explained
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