What do you mean you didn't get one?
"Fewer companies giving out bonuses to lower-paid employees; Hourly workers unlikely to get them, data show" by Jena McGregor Washington Post August 27, 2015
WASHINGTON — The good news for workers, according to data released Wednesday by Aon Hewitt, is that company spending on compensation has reached a new high.
Why do I $en$e a but or a still coming.
In 2015, the human resources consultancy reported, workers will see a flat 2.9 percent increase in base pay, on average, but they will also see a 12.9 percent increase in ‘‘variable pay”— things like bonuses, incentives, and other cash rewards — the highest increase in 39 years.
Interesting, considering that the "job market just demonstrated that it may be nearing full health, but the share of adults working has fallen to 59.3 percent, the lowest level in 31 years."
That’s nice work — if you can get it. The bad news for many workers is that fewer companies are sharing the wealth with their salaried ‘‘nonexempt’’ employees — people in clerical and technical jobs such as administrative assistants, machine operators or electricians, who are eligible for overtime and make up a huge segment of many companies’ workforces.
Who got it then?
A prior survey on variable pay by Aon Hewitt, released last fall, which was shared exclusively with The Washington Post, shows that in 2009, about 61 percent of companies in the survey included these workers in bonus pools, and 83 percent included salaried ‘‘exempt’’ workers — white-collar professionals who are not eligible for overtime.
But by 2011, just 43 percent of companies were including these clerical and technical workers in their incentive programs, and that percentage has not really recovered. It ticked up slightly to 47 percent in 2012, but in 2014, only 43 percent of companies were again handing out bonuses or other cash awards to these workers. Meanwhile, 93 percent of companies now give them to white-collar professionals.
Be it the top 20, 10, 5, 1, .01, pick your percentage, that's where the money has been going, folks. That's your glorious recovery.
Related:
"The typical US household saw its net worth actually decline 1.2 percent from 2010 to 2013....
Incomes for the highest-earning 1 percent of Americans soared 31 percent from 2009 through 2012....
And after
30 years of skyrocketing income inequality, the top 1 percent now
control a bigger share of wealth than they have since FDR, [and] not
only are the rich getting richer — they’re getting taxed less, too."
That's how they can build palaces and write them off on the taxes, and it's getting wor$e by the day.
‘‘It’s the haves and the have nots,’’ said Ken Abosch, a member of the firm’s broad-based compensation practice for North America. ‘‘There seems to be a different set of standards that organizations have — and I would say inexplicably, in many cases — for the disparity in value they perceive in different levels of the organization.’’
While the companies that respond to the firm’s variable pay survey are not identical from year to year, Abosch said the overlap is greater than the firm’s annual salary survey and consistent enough that he’s ‘‘very confident’’ in the reliability of the downward trend the data reveal. ‘‘This is not just about changes in participation in the survey,’’ he said.
The finding comes at a time when companies are increasingly awarding bonuses and short-term incentives to white-collar workers as a way of competing for talent — but without having to make the more permanent move to lift base pay. Bonuses generally are tied to performance metrics that companies hope will boost productivity, and they are far easier to limit or even take away than raises are if times get tough.
‘‘There’s been a dramatic change in the pay at risk,’’ said Abosch. ‘‘What this data is telling us is a very large segment of the workforce is not participating in that form of compensation. They’re really . . . being disadvantaged on lack of salary growth and the inability to participate in variable pay.’’
***************
The numbers appear to be evidence that corporate leaders either don’t worry about finding enough talented clerical and technical employees or don’t know how to evaluate or differentiate the work they do, Abosch said. Or, with only so much to spend, they could simply be placing their bets on those workers for whom competition is the most fierce.
Or, the money-junkie $hits are just damn greedy!
Still, that approach may be short-sighted. Including lower-paid employees in the bonus pool could lead to better retention, loyalty, and productivity among them, he said. ‘‘Let’s not forget that they are certainly partly responsible for generating the bonuses that are being paid out at the other levels.’’
Let's not forget the afterthought paragraph, right.
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My bonus is the unexpected chance to play basketball tonight, so that's it for today.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Darryl Dawkins, NBA’s ‘Chocolate Thunder,’ dies at 58
Had I know I would have dedicated my play to him last night.
The bu$ine$$ section made me about as sick as my game last night. The first note is a reflection upon what's above. As I pondered my day forward today, I realized that what you are looking at above is pure Fa$ci$m. It's also reflective of the often-misnamed authoritarian dictatorships called fascist. Then you were not a "professional," you were simply a member of the "party."
On to today's rot:
"U.S. Stock Markets Close Higher for 2nd Day as Global Shares Rebound" by Peter Eavis and Amie Tsang New York Times August 28, 2015
NEW YORK — US stock markets on Thursday turned in a second day of strong gains, reversing many of the losses sustained early in the week when global markets tumbled.
Rallies took place in all the major stock markets of the world, including in China, whose economic challenges and erratic policy making helped set off the selling wave a week ago. Investors were encouraged by unexpectedly strong economic reports in the United States and Europe.
Yeah, yeah, we all know China is to blame and thank God the fried figures were put out in the nick of time.
Bullish investors said the rise in stocks showed the pessimism that swept through markets had caused stocks to fall too far.
“What has happened the last couple of days gives you some confidence,” said Philip J. Orlando, a senior portfolio manager at Federated, a mutual fund firm. “It was a little bit of a panic and an irrational move,” he added, referring to the low points this week.
The buying was a respite from the steep declines that started in earnest a week ago and raised concerns about the strength of the global economy.
Everything's all right now.
Investors on Thursday seized on news the US economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.7 percent last quarter, faster than previously thought.
Yes, they "seized on it" as a drowning man would seize an anchor thrown to him. These guys are not only delusional and believing their own propaganda, they are dangerously doing so considering the stakes for us all.
The report provided further assurance that the US economy is on an even keel, despite questions about whether the United States could skirt mounting economic turmoil in China and other emerging markets.
Yes, are you reassured, regular citizen (remember, this is written for the $elect elite so they are assuredly reassured by this, whew!)
Stocks on Wall Street rose sharply most of the day. Europe turned positive, and shares in China ended higher as markets rallied throughout Asia. Asia appeared to have been buoyed by hints that interest rate increases in the United States might not be as imminent as previously thought.
******************
Fears that weakness in China would reverberate across the globe had been compounded by the prospect that the Federal Reserve would soon raise interest rates.
After six days of losses, US stocks rose about 4 percent Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, suggested that the cheap money that has lifted markets might flow a little longer.
WHAT?
All this wealth in front of us is cheap paper money rolling off the printing pre$$es and propping everything up is the recovery?
That's no recovery at all; it just made a very, very narrow $lice of people obscenely wealthy while kicking the rest of us in the teeth!
Dudley, vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates, said the recent turmoil in global financial markets was a risk to the US economy. He added that he found the prospect of raising interest rates next month “less compelling.”
WTF? After the whole article spent it's time telling me that is not a concern?
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Why would that be?
"Dueling data blur economic analysis; Different numbers for US economic growth; which is correct?" by Peter Coy Bloomberg News August 28, 2015
PFFFFFFFFT!
NEW YORK — The federal government on Thursday released two very different estimates of the US economy’s growth in the second quarter. The one that got all the attention was the robust 3.7 percent annual rate of increase in gross domestic product. Not many people noticed that gross domestic income increased at an annual rate of 0.6 percent.
Oh, no, we have been lied to again with phony numbers.
That’s a big discrepancy for two numbers that should theoretically be the same, since they’re two ways of measuring the same thing: the size of the economy. If you believe the GDP number, you’re happy. If you believe the GDI number, you’re thinking that the United States is skating close to a recession.
I think you know where I and the economic reports I frequent are, and you really don't think I'm believing in this deceitful and deceptive government in any way, do you?
**************
There is no name for the new hybrid data series.
How about LIES?
Which to believe? As the old joke goes....
I'm sorry, but I'm laughing at all the misery caused by this economic model of shoveling all the wealth up into greedy pockets, and am offended by the "joke."
This isn't rocket science, folks, this is a $y$tem where numbers are prevalent, kept daily, business know who they have to pay, blah, blah, government knows who is working to collect the taxes (save for the blessed illegals hired by the wealthy and slave-driving contractors), al,these rich folk basing their decisions on in$tinct? C'mon!
But they don't know, they don't know, it's a mystery -- and yet they are absolutely sure the world is boiling and you better pay that carbon tax even though it is oil-and-gas fracking sending methane into the air that is the real culprit -- if there even is one.
Michael Feroli, chief US economist for JPMorgan Chase, said he still gives more weight to the GDP number, but the low GDI growth rate does affect his thinking.
Yeah, let's believe him.
HA-HA-HA-HA!!
“There are surprisingly small discrepancies between the numbers,” he added, “considering that you’re measuring the entire economy in entirely different manners.”
No, your not! It's the same thing!
“We don’t even track [GDI], to tell the truth,” said Michael Englund, chief economist for Action Economics.
That would be a first coming from that crowd!
But he does pay attention to one of its biggest components: profits.
Yes, forget the declining revenues all over the place.
Those are notoriously difficult for the government to estimate and may account for a big part of the discrepancy between the two measures.
The JPMorgan guy said.... never f***ing mind!
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The propaganda pre$$ actually claims to know the "truth," can you believe it?
Related: Stock Markets Bottoming Out
Oh, that was yesterday's news.
Now about that recovery:
"Macy’s decision to jump into the off-price game comes as the retailer faces slowing sales. Shoppers increasingly are buying online, and when they buy clothing, they want fat deals on name brands. During the Great Recession, shoppers flocked to discount outlets, and that trend isn’t slowing down."
That's really some food for thought, huh?
Maybe we just don't have the money anymore, a$$hole.
And the shop literally right next door to that article?
"Filene’s Basement to be reborn as a low-price online retailer" by Callum Borchers Globe Staff August 27, 2015
Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst with Forrester Research, said, “I’m baffled why someone would do this,” Mulpuru said. “There is some value in the brand, which is really a regional brand, but relaunching online doesn’t seem like a smart decision to me. It’s an incredibly more competitive retail environment than Filene’s ever faced in its heyday.”
Meanwhile, the field of online-only discounters is crowded and lacking a model of runaway success for Filene’s Basement to follow, said Nikki Baird, managing partner at Retail Systems Research of Miami.
“They’re coming out in the context of a trend of disappointing performances by the likes of Groupon, Gilt, Rue La La,” Baird said. “There’s a sense that the flash sale and deep discount market is a bit overplayed.”
Love the mixed me$$ages of the plated $wirling $teamer, don't you?
Nearly a decade has passed since the Filene’s brand began to wither away. Filene’s department stores, which had split from Filene’s Basement in 1991, were folded into Macy’s in 2006 after an acquisition the year before....
I already stopped there.
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Where are you? #Twitter
"As it seeks users, Twitter acknowledges its flaws" by Barbara Ortutay Associated Press August 27, 2015
NEW YORK — Twitter’s most urgent task is naming a new CEO. But the most formidable one is convincing more people that its service is essential, easy to use, and not just meant for celebrities, 16-year-olds, and news junkies.
Good luck.
To help with the latter, there are big promotions, such as last year’s World Cup push and this year’s expanded content and advertising deal with the NFL to help broaden its audience.
There are also smaller tweaks designed to help people find new features or take advantage of tools they might not have been aware of.
And there’s just explaining the basics. While elementary advice for some, the note shows Twitter is still trying to teach people how to use its service. Retweeting, in Twitter lingo, means blasting out someone else’s Twitter post to your own followers, sort of like an e-mail forward.
Twitter, to me, equals self-centered shits, that's all.
#Twitter: Time for me to take dump, just so you know.
**********
With user growth slowing, Twitter’s management has acknowledged the service is too confusing to navigate.
HA-HA-HA-HA!
Finance chief Anthony Noto said the company has ‘‘not clearly communicated Twitter’s unique value’’ and, as a result, people who don’t use Twitter continue ask why they should.
Yup. It's a fad that is now fading, but it will be propped up by .01% wealth as a distraction and diversion.
‘‘We have not delivered on meeting the new potential users’ expectations of Twitter when they try the product,’’ Noto said in the July 28 call. ‘‘Simply said, the product remains too difficult to use. As [interim CEO Jack Dorsey] mentioned, we need to simplify the product so everyone can get value from Twitter faster.’’
Dorsey took Twitter’s helm as interim CEO after Dick Costolo stepped down on July 1 amid criticism over Twitter’s disappointing financial performance and stock-price decline. Besides Dorsey, Adam Bain, head of revenue and partnerships, is also seen a top contender for the post of permanent CEO.
And yet we have 3.7 growth and an amazing recovery!
Shares of San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. rose $1.42, or 5.7 percent, to close at $26.45 Thursday amid a broader market rally. Still, the stock is down more than 27 percent year-to-date and only slightly above the $26 price of its November 2013 initial public stock offering.
That is all that's important, the goddamn stock price.
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"Cambridge group assesses Twitter’s record on confronting online harassment" by Nidhi Subbaraman, 05/13/2015
In November, Twitter allowed the Cambridge-based Women Action & the Media group to study how the social network responded to reports of harassment. The group collected complaints from Twitter users who faced abusive language or threats, and it also studied Twitter’s existing reporting tools.
I don't tweet, and you can take or leave this blog. #Blogger
For example, Twitter does not recognize the “mobbing” effect — when an individual is targeted by hundreds of accounts — or instances where harassers revealed the former real names of transexual people, a behavior known as “deadnaming.”
Twitter was also missing the fact that harassers followed their targets across social networks, moving from Twitter to Facebook, because existing tools did not record this trend.
I don't Face, either. This is it, me, you, and the Globe.
In the report, the researchers recommend broadening the definitions of harassment so that these different kinds of threats did not fall through the cracks. The group also recommended Twitter change its policy to allow people to report violent users even if they covered their trail by deleting tweets.
I'm typing violently(????).
In the previous weeks leading up to the study, Twitter had come under intense scrutiny for allowing hostile and threatening behavior to go unchecked. The group GamerGate group had sent Massachusetts developer Brianna Wu into hiding after she spoke up about misogyny in the gaming industry, and Robin Williams’s daughter, Zelda, made the first of a series of high-profile exits from Twitter because of the threats and hostility she encountered there in the wake of her father’s death....
Who would want to pick on Robin Williams's daughter other than a provocateur, and boo-wu-who, what's yuwrong?
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Related: Using Twitter as tool to track side effects from drugs
I'm sure is all just a twitch.
Also see:
Smartwatches haven’t killed fitness tracker demand, but Apple Watch creeping up
Many expect a new iPhone at Sept. 9 Apple event
Sprint offers DirecTV customers free year of cellphone service
A Facebook first: 1b users in a day
Google ridicules EU’s ‘peculiar’ demands
Gun maker Boosts Profit Forecast
In reaction to Virginia.
Tiffany Misses on profit
Most of their profits come from the wealthy overseas.
Just in case you missed it.
And at the bottom of it all:
Gap will end on-call scheduling
Ruling eases way for union drives at fast-food chains
Whoop-eee.
At least their is plenty of $elf-$erving venture capital floating around out there.
