Free Republic

Benjamin Franklin once famously quipped, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” Today, however, we can alter that to “death, taxes, and a slew of myths about teacher pay.”Leading the half-truth brigade, on March 4, a headline in My eLearning World read, “New Teachers Are Earning 20% Less Than They Were 20 Years Ago.” The piece informs us that if starting salaries for new teachers had kept pace with inflation over the last 20 years, a teacher just starting out would currently be making $53,303 per year. Instead, using data from the National...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has rejected a proposal to raise the governor’s salary with a three percent increase in the 2025 budget, asserting that an increase is “appropriate for others given the persistent inflation” but not for the governor’s salary. “I’ve spoken to legislative leaders and asked that they remove a proposed 3% increase for the Governor’s salary in next year’s budget,” DeSantis said in a statement posted to X. “While this increase is appropriate for others given the persistent inflation in the US economy, it is best to leave the Governor’s salary as is,” he said, garnering praise...

Who knew being a professor could be so lucrative? Former Harvard University President Claudine Gay, who resigned after antisemitism and plagiarism scandals which occurred under her watch, will return to the faculty and haul in close to $900,000 a year in salary. Her classes must be amazing.But guess who’s got it even better? Her replacement (at least for now), interim president Dr. Alan M. Garber, the school’s provost. He is paid around $946,000 a year for his work – but that’s only the beginning of his earnings. He made more in 2022 -- $936,000 more -- serving as a board...

She won’t be leading the Crimson, but green shouldn’t be a problem. Outgoing Harvard President Claudine Gay will still likely earn nearly $900,000 a year despite being forced to resign her position as the school’s top administrator. Political Science professor Gay — who stepped down amid a tempest of allegations she did not do enough to combat antisemitism and academic plagiarism Tuesday — will now return to a position on the Cambridge, Mass., school’s faculty. Prior to being named president just six months ago, Gay earned $879,079 as a Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean in 2021 and $824,068 in...

The House approved a measure late Tuesday that would slash Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's taxpayer-funded government salary to just $1. The bill - which was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. - was passed via voice vote Tuesday as an amendment to the 2024 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, the standalone funding bill for the General Services Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission and other related agencies. "I’m proud to announce my amendment to FIRE Pete Buttigieg just PASSED the House. Pothole Pete staged fake bike rides to the White House and used private planes funded by taxpayers...

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s annual salary will be $1 if a bipartisan spending bill passed by the House becomes law. The bipartisan Homeland Security appropriations bill secured two Democrat votes from Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA). The House used a tool called the Holman rule, which allows it to alter an individual government employee’s salary. The amendment to reduce Mayorkas’s salary was introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and passed unanimously.

Walmart is paying some new store workers less than it would have three months ago, a sign that employers are seeking to cut labor costs as the once-hot market for hourly staff cools. The country’s largest private employer changed its wage structure for hourly workers in mid-July. [Snip] The wage-structure change comes after Walmart and other large employers have for years steadily raised wages and added benefits to attract workers in a tight labor market. The retailer’s latest move suggests that the stresses companies are facing in trying to find employees are easing and that they need to find ways...

It's hard for us to understand China, partly because of the very real cultural differences, and partly because China is wholly owned and operated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has never been forthcoming about the actual state of China's economy, especially where real estate is concerned.Those chickens are now coming home to roost. The CCP China's real estate bubble is popping, and the workers who build China's housing are already paying the price.Workers for a major Chinese developer are going without pay, and job sites are going unfinished as the Chinese real estate market struggles, according to...

Signing a contract for a six-figure contract used to allow Americans to feel as though they had made it. But now, $100,000 salary only goes so far — and its worth varies from city to city. Across major U.S. cities, $100,000 can be worth as much as $86,444 and as little as $35,791, a recent SmartAsset study finds. The study compares the value of $100,000 across 76 major U.S. cities, accounting for cities' income taxes and cost of living. Cities in the South, from Tennessee to Texas, dominated the top 10 cities where $100,000 goes the furthest. In Memphis, Tennessee,...

As you’ve likely already heard, Facebook’s parent company Meta is laying off large numbers of people in an effort to remain financially viable. This stressful situation has been exacerbated by the absence of much of its management who are working remotely, some from other countries. How could things have possibly gone so far downhill so quickly? Do you suppose there might have been something less than ideal about their business practices and how they managed their workforce? Perhaps that idea will resonate a bit more after you hear from Madelyn Machado, who was a recruiter for Meta earning an eye-popping...

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court noted that the case hinged on the issue of whether Hewitt, whose job is called tool pusher, was paid on a salary basis.

It looks like my colleague Jazz Shaw first wrote about Dan Price back in August of 2015. Price is the Seattle CEO Gravity Payments who made a lot of news when he announced he’d be paying his employees a minimum of $70,000 each and cut his own salary from just over a million dollars a year to $70,000.Dan became a mini-celebrity for these efforts. Esquire called him a “folk hero for the age of inequality.” In a separate story published in 2016, Esquire reported that Price’s background and motive weren’t as pure as it may have appeared.In a TEDx Talk...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday announced that the House will now require staffers to get paid a minimum salary of $45,000. “I am pleased to announce that, pursuant to the statutory authority of the Speaker in 2 U.S.C. 4532, the House will for the first time ever set the minimum annual pay for staff at $45,000,” Pelosi wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter, first reported by Punchbowl News.

Americans have lost jobs by the millions as the coronavirus pandemic continues to bludgeon the U.S. economy. However, many jobless workers stand to reap a financial benefit from their layoffs. Some could more than double their prior salaries.The distortion results from the $2.2 trillion economic relief bill enacted in March, which boosted jobless benefits to a level unseen since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s.Around 40% of all workers could theoretically earn more while unemployed than going back to work, according to an analysis by Noah Williams, director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy...

David Parker is the CEO of Covenant Logistics and he was blunt with analysts who follow the company on its earnings call Tuesday.“How do we get enough drivers?” he said in response to a question from Stephens analyst Jack Atkins. “I don’t know.”Parker then gave an overview of the situation facing Covenant, and by extension other companies, in trying to recruit drivers. One problem: With rates so high, companies are encountering the fact that a driver doesn’t need to work a full schedule to pull in a decent salary.“We’re finding out that just to get a driver, let’s say the...

While COVID-19 slowed hiring across the country for much of the past 13 months, many companies are still actively searching for eager college graduates and entry-level employees to fill a range of internship roles. And some of these roles pay top dollar. Our Economic Research team pulled together a list of the 25 Highest Paying Internships for 2021, identifying companies with the highest monthly median base pay for interns as reported by the U.S.-based interns on Glassdoor during the pandemic (between March 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021). TOP FIVE1. NVIDIA Median Monthly Pay: $8,811 2. Facebook Median Monthly Pay:...

Being an NBA referee is a harder job than many people think, no matter how many fans believe they could do a better job or that their "grandma could have made a better call." They can be a team's hero or their greatest nightmare, depending on the night's call. An NBA referee needs to be confident, stern, smart, and aware to make a call in a high-pressure environment with 20,000 fans cheering or booing at them. An underrated aspect of a referee is the physical fitness that they need to maintain during a game. Refs need to run up and...

California megachurch Pastor John MacArthur’s ministry denied he makes more than $500,000 annually from his Grace to You media ministry and defended the stewardship of his collective ministries' finances on Tuesday after a recent report suggested his private lifestyle belies the modesty he preaches at the pulpit.“The questions and quibbling innuendo that have been published on the Internet regarding John MacArthur’s income and stewardship are rooted in misinformation. For example, a report has been floating around online for some time that John makes more than half a million dollars annually from GTY. Totally false,” Phil Johnson, GTY executive director and...

Like many American business owners, Donald Trump took a huge financial hit in COVID America in the past year. But since leaving office, we’re getting a look at how much worse things have gotten for him.At the White House, Trump worked for free, donating his $400,000 yearly salary to charities and government programs. In civilian life, his companies, run by his kids while he was in the White House, were bleeding money, according to financial disclosure forms he filed before leaving office.The Washington Post reported:Financial disclosure forms … revealed that his hotels, resorts and other properties had lost more than...

In a 2016 interview with Lisa Stahl, Trump did something only two presidents in history have ever done. He affirmed he would be serving without pay. By accepting only $1 each year (as required by law), he joins Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy as the only two presidents who served and defended solely from Love of Country. Actually, when he made the promise, Trump had no idea how much the President is paid. (Isn't that adorable!?! Runs for the job. Has no idea what it pays!) By serving for free, he proves yet again that America is his sole...