What will jobs be like in the future? FastCompany asked me to write a short article that answered this question. My answer was simple: what is likely in store for a growing number of people are exceptionally long work days combined with exceptionally high pay. Many more people in the future will be bringing home fat paychecks, but rarely be home long enough to spend them. Continue reading The Future of Work: High Paying Jobs with Crushingly Long Hours
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Is a $15 per Hour Minimum Wage An Insane Increase?
Recently, The New York Times ran a front page story highlighting demonstrations that are being held for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Currently, the Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which means more than doubling the pay of low-wage workers. Is there any precedent for a $7.75 absolute increase, which is a 107% relative increase? Continue reading Is a $15 per Hour Minimum Wage An Insane Increase?
Is There a Limit to How Much a Person Should Tip?
I was cleaning up my desk when I came across the picture at the bottom of this blog entry. The picture is of a professional sports team’s bar tab after they won the league’s championship. The service fee was 20% of their bar tab. Twenty percent doesn’t seem like something worth blogging about, but this team ended up paying $25,000 service fee for 2 hours of just drinking and not eating a single bite of food. Professional sports teams do crazy things after winning championships so having a giant bar tab is not unusual. What was unusual was the team in addition to drinking lots of beer and whiskey, drank one bottle of very rare champagne that cost $100,000. The waitress didn’t open the bottle or serve it, that was done by the players themselves. However, by having one single bottle of champagne the players’ tip jumped from a $5,000 service fee to a $25,000 service fee. The huge increase led me to wonder, “Is there a limit to how much a person or group should tip?” Continue reading Is There a Limit to How Much a Person Should Tip?
Did You Know the NFL is a Non-Profit That Pays No Taxes?
Earlier this semester I gave a lecture on the economics of non-profit organizations. Non-profits are given their status because the government wants to provide extra incentives for organizations to tackle problems and for individuals to donate money to solve these problems. In my lecture I discuss some standard examples like hospitals, symphonies and colleges. Then I take students to GuideStar, which reports on the finances of non-profits. GuideStar allows you to see the actual forms, called the 990, that almost all non-profits file each year with the IRS. Some students are then assigned the tasks of creating homework problems based on the lecture. Jerry Lavoie, one of my students, sent in an amazing homework that showed the NFL is a non-profit organization that pays no taxes. I was shocked to read this, but after double checking his work, it is true. Continue reading Did You Know the NFL is a Non-Profit That Pays No Taxes?