Aurelia Butler

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The Biden administration will bolster union-friendly rules on Tuesday that will boost wages and protections for workers on federally funded construction projects, potentially drawing the ire of trade groups who warn the changes could curtail billions of dollars in new federal investment. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Philadelphia on Tuesday to celebrate the new labor reforms at a union hall. The trip marks the latest in a string of visits by Harris and President Joe Biden to this key electoral battleground state to court unions, a core constituency. The changes to the Davis-Bacon Act issued by the Labor Department seek to boost wages and protections as the federal government spends billions of dollars on new roads and bridges, and expanding industries like computer chips and green energy spurred by several pieces of legislation. “The rules are more important than ever to ensure fair wages for workers and ensuring good wages for them,” a senior administration official said.The Davis-Bacon Act, first established in 1931, tasks the federal government with establishing wage floors – known as prevailing wages – that apply to construction projects partially or fully funded by the federal government. It applies to more than one million construction workers on $200 billion of such projects, the administration said. President Joe Biden ordered the review of the labor law early in the administration and the Labor Department proposed the rule in March last year. It will become effective in roughly 60 days.Trade groups have long criticized the prevailing wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act, saying they are burdensome and discourage small businesses from seeking federal contracts.The rule changes the way prevailing wages are calculated, basing them on wages paid to at least 30% of local workers, rather than a 50% threshold set in 1983 by then-President Ronald Regan. The prevailing wage rate is based on an average rate in a region, and eliminating some lower-wage workers in the calculation will boost the wage floor, a senior administration official said. The Labor Department must currently periodically survey contractors and other parties to update prevailing wage rates, but will now be able to adopt prevailing wages determined by state and local governments, issue wage determinations for jobs when data is lacking and update outdated wage rates. The rule will add a new anti-retaliation provision in contract clauses to protect workers who raise concerns from being fired or punished and strengthens the government’s ability to withhold money from a contractor in order to pay employees their lost wages. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Financial firms that enforce strict return-to-office mandates could drive employees to leave, according to a study published Tuesday by accounting firm Deloitte.Of 700 financial executives surveyed by Deloitte, 66% who worked remotely part time said they would likely quit if they were ordered to return to the office five days a week.”Professionals – men and women alike – whose work and personal lives have been reshaped by remote work largely want to maintain flexibility even if it comes at a personal cost,” Deloitte said. Companies that insist on five days of in-office work are likely to see those policies backfire, the study showed. Firms could face resistance, higher resignation rates and difficulties recruiting talent, it added.Across corporate America, employers are wrestling with the balance between in-person collaboration and flexibility. Even among the large Wall Street banks, views have differed. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) have been prominent advocates of in-office working for learning, innovation and culture. By contrast, Citigroup (NYSE:C), UBS and Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) have embraced more flexibility as a way to attract and retain talent.The Deloitte survey showed caregivers with remote or hybrid arrangements were 1.3 times more likely to leave their jobs if that flexibility was taken away.It also warned that “the risk of losing talented women to a competitor or to another industry is real.” Poll results showed almost half of women in senior leadership roles were likely to leave their current employer over the next 12 months. More

(Reuters) – Barring any abrupt change in the direction of recent economic data, the U.S. Federal Reserve may be at the stage where it can leave interest rates where they are, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said on Tuesday.“Absent any alarming new data between now and mid-September, I believe we may be at the point where we can be patient and hold rates steady and let the monetary policy actions we have taken do their work,” Harker said in remarks prepared for delivery at an event in Philadelphia.The remarks from Harker, who has a vote this year on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee and supported last month’s rate increase, are perhaps the strongest yet from a Fed official on whether to raise interest rates at the central bank’s Sept. 19-20 meeting.Should it be appropriate to cease raising rates, however, Harker said “we will need to be there for a while. The pandemic taught us to never say never, but I do not foresee any likely circumstance for an immediate easing of the policy rate.”Like other Fed officials, Harker welcomed recent data showing inflation has eased substantially from four-decade highs a year ago at this time, and he expects that to continue. Harker said he now expects the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, stripped of food and energy costs, to drop to just below 4% by year end and to below 3% in 2024 before “leveling out at our 2% target in 2025.”The Fed raised its benchmark policy rate by a quarter percentage point at its meeting last month to a range of 5.25% to 5.50%. Projections from policymakers at their June meeting signaled that a majority then expected another increase beyond that, but the recent easing in inflation has kindled a more fulsome debate over the matter.Harker said he does expect a modest uptick in the unemployment rate, last at 3.5% in July, and a slowing in gross domestic product growth from its recent pace. “In sum, I expect only a modest slowdown in economic activity to go along with a slow but sure disinflation,” Harker said. “In other words, I do see us on the flight path to the soft landing we all hope for and that has proved quite elusive in the past.” More

In remarks made on the eve of Singapore’s national day, Lee said his government would maintain “high standards of honesty, integrity, and propriety” after the anti-graft agency launched a rare investigation into a cabinet minister, and two lawmakers from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) were forced to resign over an inappropriate relationship.”Let there be no doubt: my government is determined to keep our system free of corruption and wrongdoing,” he said in a televised address, wearing a shirt with Singapore’s national colours of red and white. Singapore is due to hold elections by 2025. The PAP has maintained a grip on power since Singapore became an independent nation in 1965.Lee also addressed rising living costs in a country already considered among the world’s most expensive.”Inflation is still a problem for us, as it is for many countries,” he said.Singapore’s yearly core inflation rate – which excludes private road transport and accommodation costs – eased to 4.2% in June from 4.7% in May. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) chief Ravi Menon said last month that Singapore’s inflation would ease significantly thanks to a tight monetary policy stance, but the central bank would “not switch from inflation-fighting mode to growth-supporting mode”.The MAS left monetary policy settings unchanged in April, after tightening five times in a row since October 2021, reflecting concerns over the city-state’s growth outlook. More