Geaux vote: Varsity Sports owner Jenni Peters has advanced as one of eight finalists to represent Louisiana in the national 2018 Cox Conserves Heroes competition sponsored by Cox Communications and the Trust for Public Land. If Peters wins, she plans to use the $50,000 to improve Little Duck Landing at BREC’s City Park. Voting is open now until Oct. 15 with the winner receiving $50,000 to donate to their environmental charity of choice.
Wage hike: Amazon.com announced this morning it’s raising the minimum wage it pays all U.S. workers to $15 an hour, a move that comes as the company faces increased criticism about pay and benefits for its warehouse workers, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new minimum wage kicks in Nov. 1, covering more than 250,000 current employees and 100,000 seasonal holiday employees. The company said it also will start lobbying Congress for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which was set nearly a decade ago and is currently $7.25 an hour. Read the full story.
Emergency preparations: In the past year, 48% of households faced at least one unexpected expense related to an emergency, according to a CIT Bank survey whose results were published in August, MarketWatch reports. But a growing number of employers, benefit-plan sponsors, policy analysts and members of Congress are taking steps to correct the long-standing problem with what they call sidecar accounts that go alongside firms’ 401(k) retirement-savings plans. In a sidecar account, an employee uses after-tax money from each paycheck as a payroll deduction to fund what amounts to an emergency savings account. Read the full story.
