Free Republic

Wendy’s is preparing to test an “Uber-style” surge-pricing model where prices will fluctuate throughout the day based on demand — meaning a Dave’s burger will cost more during the lunchtime rush. Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner — who rose to the chief role earlier this month — announced the new system on a call with investors, noting that the pricing menu will begin testing in 2025, Daily Mail earlier reported. With the dynamic pricing model, the chain’s iconic Dave’s Single could increase by as much as $1 at lunchtime and drop down by the same amount after the lunch rush. With...

Hourly compensation soared much more than expected in the first three months of the year, even as millions of Americans remained on unemployment roles or out of the workforce, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Thursday. Hourly compensation jumped 7.2 percent in the first quarter, according to the BLS’s revised estimate of labor costs and productivity. This had been reported as rising 5.1 percent in the first estimate. Adjusted for inflation, hourly compensation rose 3.3 percent, more than twice the 1.3 percent originally reported. Wage pressure was higher in manufacturing, where compensation now seen as jumping 8.9 percent...

The 20-million square foot campus was praised by President Donald Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing. -- t campus marked the largest greenfield investment by a foreign-based company in U.S. history and was praised by President Donald Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing. Foxconn, which received controversial state and local incentives for the project, initially planned to manufacture advanced large screen displays for TVs and other consumer and professional products at the facility, which is under construction. It later said it would build smaller LCD screens instead. Now, those plans may be...

U.S. worker productivity was even weaker than first thought from October through December while labor costs rose at a faster rate. Productivity declined at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, weaker than the 1.8 percent drop that was estimated a month ago, the Labor Department said Thursday. Labor costs rose at a 4.1 percent rate, faster than the 2.7 percent increase first estimated. Weaker productivity and higher labor costs could spell inflation troubles for the economy. But analysts say that the changes in the fourth quarter are temporary and not an indication that inflation is about...

Volkswagen hopes to put more robots to work as it says goodbye to its retiring baby boomer employees, the company’s chief of human resources wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday. […] “In the German auto industry, labor costs are more than €40 per hour; eastern European labor costs €11; in China, it’s still than less than €10,” (Horst) Neumann wrote. “A current robotic replacement for assembly work currently costs around €5 an hour. Predictably, next-generation robotics will be even cheaper. We have to take make the most of this price advantage.” …

The 25 statistics below prove that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Why? Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing rules, regulations and taxes that make it even more difficult to conduct business here. What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while the average family barely gets by. Entitlement programs are expanding at unprecedented rates, but it is the people...

The export of Swedish jobs is accelerating, according to a new report from Sweden's largest private sector trade union, Unionen. Many firms do not conduct any form of evaluation, the report shows. Thousands lose their jobs at Christmas (29 Dec 08) Redundancies rocket in December (22 Dec 08) Swedish job losses set to soar in 2009 (19 Dec 08) Every third firm has moved jobs out of the country in the last three years and 37 percent of industrial firms have moved operations. The report shows a significant increase on a previous survey, undertaken by Sif four years ago, which...

Has the AFL-CIO finally agreed that unions drive up labor costs to unsustainable levels, hurting business, workers, and taxpayers alike? A news story in last week’s Detroit News suggests so. The Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau recently surveyed organizations that considered, but ultimately decided against, holding a convention at Cobo Hall. The News obtained a copy of the survey. While many groups offered no reason for their decision, and others cited the city’s weather or reputation, others singled out the high labor costs of the center, which requires convention groups to hire union labor. So who cited union-required labor...

The biggest disagreement over President Bush's proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security doesn't involve protecting the nation's porous borders, improving spotty bioterror defenses or fixing the intelligence system. Instead the White House and the Senate are engaged in a battle over the rights of management and workers in the new department, a titanic struggle that has transformed the seemingly obscure issue into the biggest obstacle to the most sweeping government reorganization of the past half-century. The dispute pits Democrats and their formidable labor allies against the power and prestige of the president, who has threatened to veto legislation...