Median rent rose in San Antonio from July 2014 to August 2014; it fell in both Laredo and Corpus Christi during the same span.
Median house prices for all three MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) fell from July 2014 to August 2014.
Image source: http://www.asemooni.com/news/economic-news/the-president-agreed-with-the-increase-in-housing
In this case, the charging party, the plaintiff, alleges that that the defendant unlawfully suspended a work contract. The plaintiffs had a $10.5 million, 3 year contract with the defendant to install and maintain machinery at a pipe manufacturing facility.
The plaintiff alleges that after the defendant unlawfully solicited and hired its key employee to come and work for the defendant, the defendant then terminated the contract. The plaintiff further alleges that the defendant used the former employees of the plaintiff, and the confidential knowledge that they possessed, to complete the install and maintenance of the multimillion dollar pipe making machinery. The plaintiffs financial records indicated that had performed about 1/3 of the work spelled out in the business contract.
In this instance, the value of the remaining portion of the contract is calculated under two different ‘but-for’ contract breach scenarios. The but-for scenario calculates the profits that the plaintiff would have received but-for the defendant’s alleged breach of contract.
In the first but-for scenario, the profit from the remaining portion of the business contract is calculated as the lost profit from the remaining items of spelled out in the contract. The lost profit is determined by calculating the estimated revenue from the remaining items and subtracting the expected incremental cost associated with the performance of the contract.
In the second but-for scenario, the after-incremental expense profits are calculated based on the items that were actually installed by the vendors that the defendant utilized following the termination of the contract with the plaintiff.
Crude oil price decreased from $98.23 per barrel in July 2014 to $97.86 per barrel in August 2014. Natural gas price went up from $3.78 per million BTU (one million BTU is approximately 974 cubic feet) in July 2014 to $4.04 per million BTU in August 2014.
Texas crude oil production for July 2014 was 69,573,013 barrels, down from 70,108,403 barrels reported in April 2014. Texas natural gas production was 632,494,096 Mcf (thousand cubic feet) of gas in July 2014, down from the June 2014 gas production total of 639,345,631 Mcf.
Sources: eia.gov, rrc.state.tx.us
According to dictionary.com:
[kouch-surf] couch surfing: sleeping on the couch or extra bed of an acquaintance when traveling or between permanent lodging places, esp. to save money.
Couch surfing, is an alternative way of living and traveling, especially among the young, There are even websites, like https://www.couchsurfing.org/, dedicated to making couch surfing matches.
The prevalence of couch surfing can be measured to a good degree by U.S BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey data. The table below shows the break down of who owns outright (1), owns with a mortgage (2), rents (3), stays without rent (4), and who stays in a dorm (5).
Some employers, both private and public, are moving towards making employee’s salaries public. “Making Pay Public” by Tamara Lytle , in HR Magazine, September 2014. discusses the recent trend of employers making employee’s salaries more open.
Some employers such as, Buffer, are going so far as to not only making their salaries public, but are also providing details on the decision process by which the employee’s salary was determined. For example, Buffer’s salary formula has set factors that take into account the employee’s job type, seniority, experience, location, and equity versus salary choice.
In the formula, engineers and designers have a base salary of $60.000 while content crafters have a base salary of $50,000. Employees in Austin receive a $12,000 salary kicker, while employees in San Franciso receive a $22,000 salary kicker. Buffer’s (and other’s) approach to salary is clearly a different approach from how some employers had pay discussions in the past.
Some employers, both private and public, are moving towards making employee’s salaries public. “Making Pay Public” by Tamara Lytle , in HR Magazine, September 2014. discusses the recent trend of employers making employee’s salaries more open.
Some employers such as, Buffer, are going so far as to not only making their salaries public, but are also providing details on the decision process by which the employee’s salary was determined. For example, Buffer’s salary formula has set factors that take into account the employee’s job type, seniority, experience, location, and equity versus salary choice.
In the formula, engineers and designers have a base salary of $60.000 while content crafters have a base salary of $50,000. Employees in Austin receive a $12,000 salary kicker, while employees in San Franciso receive a $22,000 salary kicker. Buffer’s (and other’s) approach to salary is clearly a different approach from how some employers had pay discussions in the past.
The short answer is: Generally no they do not get rolled into the regular rate of pay for the purpose of calculating an employee’s overtime (OT). However, calculating the applicable regular rate of pay to be used in calculating overtime for a tip employee is a little different from that of non-tipped employees.
To illustrate, consider the following Midwestern restaurant chain. The manager of one of the regions is reviewing its overtime policy for its tipped employees.
FLSA allows tipped employees to be paid less than the minimum wage. In this state, like the federal law, tipped employees are paid a minimum of $2.13 per hour. In the state employers. Employers of tipped employees can claim a tip credit up to the difference between the cash payment requirement of $2.13 and the minimum wage of $7.25. So in this state the employer can take a maximum tip credit of $5.12 ($7.25 – $2.13).
The restaurant pays its employees a rate less than minimum. (The employees of course continue to work at the location because of the tips that they earn as waiters and servers!) The restaurant claims a tip credit of $5.12 per hour. In the chain, the restaurant employees retain all their tips as required by FLSA, but they do take part in a valid tip pooling arrangement with other employees (bussers and service bartenders in this case example) who regularly receive tips.
How NOT to calculate the OT rate for its tipped employees:
Unlike its non-tipped employees, the restaurant can not simply pay its tipped employees an overtime rate equal to 1.5 times the employees hourly rate. That is the employer can not simply pay $3.20 per hour ($2.13 x 1.5) for the employees OT.
How to calculate the OT rate for its tipped employees:
So in this example, the employee’s OT rate should by $5.76 for hours worked over 40 in a week.
Fed. Min. Wage: $7.25
OT rate: 1.5
OT Hourly Rate: $10.88 ($7.25 x 1.5)
minus employer tip credit: $5.12 ($7.25-$2.13)
OT rate for tipped employees : $5.76
So in practice, the actual OT rate will vary by state since different states have different minimums. However, in general the calculation follows as above.
Resources:
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The list is not exhaustive but does provide a start for those looking into the issue of recidivism.(parts excerpted from Bad Ink, by Hartger)
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Waters, K. 2012. The Tattooed Inmate and Recidivism. Electronic Theses, Treatises, and Dissertations. Paper 5262.
Windzio, M. 2006. Is There a Deterrent Effect of Pains of Imprisonment? The Impact of ‘Social Costs’ of First Incarceration on the Hazard Rate of Recidivism. Punishment and Society, 8(3), 341-364.
Review of Kaitlyn Hartger’s ‘Bad Ink: Visible Tattoos and Recidivism‘
by Dwight Steward, Ph.D.
Kaitlyn Hartger’s study ‘A closer look at Bad Ink: Visible Tattoos and Recidivism study by Kaitlyn Hartger’ is intriguing and adds quite a bit to the existing literature on recidivism and the factors related to reincarnation.
Generally, the paper uses data from Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) Offender Based
Information System (OBIS) to study the recidivism of inmates with and without tattoos. Hartger goes further with her unique data set, further classifies the potential visibility of the inmates tattoo to a potential employer.
She finds that tattoos do matter. Having a tattoo cuts the survival rate, i.e. the likelihood of the inmate not returning to incarceration, in half. In her data, the average inmate survives approximately 13.5 years ‘on the outside’ where as an inmate with tattoos has a survival rate of 5.8 years. The impact is even larger for inmates with tattoos that may be potentially visible to employers.
The figure above shows the estimated impact of having a tattoo on recidivism rates.
Overall, the paper makes three main contributions.
The following states raised their minimum wage in 2014:
Connecticut: Connecticut’s hourly minimum wage will increase incrementally to $10.10 over the next three years.
Delaware: Delaware’s minimum wage will increase to $8.25 an hour, effective June 1, 2015.
Hawaii: Hawaii’s minimum wage will increase to $10.10 per hour over the next four years.
Maryland: Maryland raised its minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by July 2018
Massachusetts: A new law will gradually raise the minimum wage in the state to $11 per hour by 2017,
Michigan: A new law will increase the state’s minimum hourly wage to $9.25 per hour by Jan. 1, 2018
Minnesota: The state’s minimum wage increased on Aug. 1, 2014, to $8 per hour for large employers (>$500k in gross sales). to $9.50 on Aug. 1, 2016. Beginning in 2018, the wage will be indexed to inflation to a maximum increase of 2.5 percent per year.
Rhode Island: The state’s minimum wage will increase to $9 per hour, effective Jan. 1, 2015.
Vermont: The state’s minimum wage will rise to $10.50 an hour by 2018. After 2018, annual cost-of-living increases of either 5 percent or if it is lower, a rate calculated by the federal Department of Labor annually that is tied to the consumer price index.
West Virginia: The state’s hourly minimum wage will increase to $8 on Jan. 1, 2015, and increase to $8.75 the following Jan. 1, 2016.
Washington, D.C.: The Minimum Wage Amendment Act of 2013 will increase the district’s minimum hourly wage in three steps to $11.50 by July 1, 2016
-See more at: http://www.shrm.org/legalissues/stateandlocalresources/pages/states-minimum-wage-2014.aspx#sthash.YFK7jjgC.dpuf