Salaries
With Contracts in Place, “Hunger Games” Stars Won’t Earn Big Bucks for Sequels
With all of the hype surrounding the release of “The Hunger Games” on March 23, it’s not hard to imagine that the movie’s stars will soon join the red-carpet ranks of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Kristen Stewart, and Robert Pattinson.
The only thing is, if Josh Hutcherson Jennifer Lawrence, and Liam Hemsworth do burst forth as Hollywood’s newest A-listers, they’ll still be earning a pauper’s pay compared to their contemporaries if the Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. decides to make films out of Suzanne Collins’ sequels to the book, “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay.” Continue reading…
Entry-Level College Graduates’ Average Income Down since 2000
Conventional wisdom has always held that a college education pays for itself through increased wages throughout graduates’ careers. That wisdom has lost some of its luster in the past few years, as new college graduates find that they are being paid less than graduates of ten years ago.
That’s according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank that focuses on how economic policy affects low- and middle-income workers.
“From 2000 to 2011, a period of disappointing overall wage growth, wages actually fell among every entry-level group,” the study found. College-educated men have seen their wages fall by 7.6 percent, while women have lost 6 percent. Continue reading…
Partisanship in Congress Threatens Payroll Tax Cut Extension
Workers will see their pay-checks shrink after New Year’s if Congress fails to reach a compromise before Dec. 31 about extending the payroll tax cut.
The tax cut was implemented as a way to put more cash in consumers’ pockets and stimulate the weak economy. Continue reading…