A helping hand: The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is asking Louisianans to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria. The foundation has granted $100,000 to the Center for a New Economy, a nonprofit think tank in Puerto Rico that’s providing immediate relief, and has helped the center establish an online site to accept donations. BRAF has supported the center for more than a decade.
Upping the ante: Target announced this morning that it’s raising the minimum hourly wage for thousands of employees to $11 an hour beginning next month and will increase the rate to $15 by the end of 2020. The increase will apply to the approximately 100,000 seasonal employees the retailer is hiring for the holidays, but the company declined to say how many of its 323,000 regular employees will see a lift. The move is the latest volley in a wage war that Wal-Mart kicked off two years ago by raising its minimum wage to $10 in two steps, affecting over 1 million workers. Bloomberg has the full story.
The survey says: Most business economists expect the Trump administration’s efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement will make no difference to the U.S. economy or cause harm. The National Association for Business Economics survey of 47 economists found that one-third think the renegotiation will have no impact, while one-fifth think it will harm the economy slightly. Seven percent see its impact as strongly or moderately negative. One-quarter said the renegotiation will be slightly positive while 9% said it would be moderately positive. The survey covered economists who work for large companies, trade associations, consulting firms and universities. The Associated Press has the full story.
