The food service industry is a significant contributor to the global economy, employing millions worldwide. Within this sector, companies like McDonald's and Starbucks play important roles, not only because of their large market share but also in setting industry standards for employment practices. The food service industry also faces ongoing scrutiny regarding wage practices and the quality of food being served. This issue will explore the financial and employment practices of McDonald's and Starbucks, two large public companies in this sector, to assess their approaches to employee compensation and benefits...
The living wage discourse often casts a wide net, exploring economic impacts across industries. However, within this series, we now turn our focus to a single industry—retail. Retail is unique, as it employs a substantial share of minimum-wage workers and faces some of the most significant challenges in wage disparity. We will examine how wages, benefits, and corporate policies shape the retail workforce’s economic reality, with a deeper look at the contrast between part-time and full-time positions and case studies on giants like Walmart and Costco...
The concept of a "living wage" is centered on the income necessary for individuals and families to meet their basic needs, such as housing, food, healthcare, and transportation, without relying on others or government assistance. Unlike the minimum wage, which is often set arbitrarily and can fall short of covering basic living expenses, the living wage is calculated based on the actual costs of living in a specific region...
The world is approaching a critical threshold in the fight against climate change, a fight that is mainly against ourselves. At the Paris Climate Accord, participating nations committed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, recognizing that surpassing this threshold would lead to severe and potentially irreversible environmental changes...
This summer, Washington, D.C., and many other parts of North America have experienced record-breaking heat waves at 102o, exposing significant vulnerabilities in our societal and economic structures. As temperatures soar, it becomes evident that both immediate and long-term actions are essential to protect those most at risk...
A living wage recognizes that life is more than work and has profound social implications for communities and families. It acknowledges that workers are people first and should work to live, not live to work. In 2022, the median living wage in the United States was an estimated $25.02 per hour or $104,077.70 per year for a family of four...
I recently had the opportunity to visit Dubai as part of the George Mason University Global Residency. Meeting local business leaders and visiting the UAE's massive renewable energy projects were insightful experiences...
The oil and gas industry remains a crucial part of the global economy, powering homes, businesses, and transportation. Despite the push towards renewable energy, oil and gas continue to be indispensable. However, the sector faces increasing pressure to reduce its environmental impact and improve sustainability practices...
There is a widening chasm between executive pay for performance and average employee salaries...
The world's leading nations and a number of corporations gathered at COP28 in Dubai, November 2023, faced with the daunting reality of 2023 being the hottest year on record (1.17° above average)...
Credit card debt hit a record $1.08 Trillion by the third quarter of 2023, with an average balance of $5,900 per borrower. The interest rate for all credit card accounts hit a record 20.68% in May 2023, as reported by Federal Reserve data...
In the intricacies of global economics, both countries and corporations play pivotal roles, contributing distinctive threads to the world's economic and financial tapestry. This briefing opens the curtain a bit on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of nations and the Market Capitalization (Market Cap) of corporations, giving insights into their influence, ethical considerations, and power dynamics and raising the questions of accountability and responsibility to global citizens and the planet...
There is shifting demographics in USA and in major industrialized countries, and industries have not kept up with this demographic shift at various leadership levels, including the highest level which is the board of directors. This article begins to shed some light on this as part of our Economic and Social Justice Program (ESJP)...
In this second article on corporate governance where we focus on DEI challenges, one of our operating assumptions is that unless the board of a public company reflect the diversity of its customers, its employees and the communities it serves and operate within, it will fail to serve all of its various stakeholder in an equitable way...
