Quote (IceMage @ Feb 2 2018 10:33am)
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The U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in January, and wages grew at the fastest pace in eight years.
The unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest since 2000, the Labor Department said Friday.
Wages were up 2.9% compared with a year earlier, the best pace since June 2009. Wage growth has been the last major measure to make meaningful progress since the end of the Great Recession.
The Federal Reserve would like wages to grow even faster -- 3% or more -- but Friday's report was a welcome sign for workers after years of stagnant pay.
Economists say it's time to take note of how strong, or "tight," the U.S. job market is.
Friday's numbers show 2018 "will be a year of rising wages and the tightest labor market in over a generation," said Joseph Brusuelas, chief U.S. economist at RSM, an accounting and consulting firm.
Some economists anticipate that the Republican tax law will continue to boost wages, because some large corporations are giving their workers raises. One-time bonuses, which many other companies have given out, are not counted in the wage growth calculation.
Several states also raised their minimum wage at the start of the year, which helped overall wages grow. And experts say wages had to rise at some point as the country kept adding jobs and unemployment stayed low.
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“Hostess Brands Rewards Employees with Bonuses of More Than $1,000 Following New Tax Reform Law”
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KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hostess Brands, Inc. today announced that, following the recently enacted tax legislation, the snack cake maker will be providing bonuses totaling $1,250 to its 1036 hourly bakery and corporate employees. The bonuses will include $750 in cash and a $500 401k contribution.
In a letter to employees, executive chairman C. Dean Metropoulos said: “The recent tax reform changes have given us the opportunity to review our benefit and compensation structure with an eye toward further investing in our workforce
& almost more importantly
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To further sweeten the benefit, Hostess is also offering a year’s worth of free product to all employees. A representative from each bakery location will choose a “product of the week” for the bakery and all employees will be eligible to take home one multi-pack of the week’s selection, every week for a year.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180131005885/en/Hostess-Brands-Rewards-Employees-Bonuses-1000-New
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