Raising the Social Security to Age 70

WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) — House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, says the United States should raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and limit benefits based on need.

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Boehner endorsed raising the retirement age to 70 for people who are still 20 years away from retirement and limit benefit payments to those who need them, the newspaper said Tuesday. Cuts in Social Security benefits should be part of entitlement reform he said would be necessary to pay the cost of the war in Afghanistan.

Boehner also said the financial reform measure agreed to last week in a bipartisan House-Senate conference committee was out of proportion to the financial crisis that led to the deepest U.S. recession since the Great Depression.

“This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Instead, Boehner called for improved enforcement of financial regulations.

Speaking with the newspaper’s editors and reporters, Boehner said a backlash against the Obama administration and congressional Democrats is building among U.S. voters.

“The American people have written off the Democrats,” he said. “They’re willing to look at (Republicans) us again.”

He accused Democrats of “snuffing out the America that I grew up in.”

“There’s a political rebellion brewing, and I don’t think we’ve seen anything like it since 1776,” Boehner said.

source: upi

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Workplace Discrimination Against the Obese

Workplace discrimination against individuals who are overweight and obese is on the rise, despite the fact that more and more Americans fall into that category. The discrimination ranges from excluding obese employees from certain activities, paying them lower salaries and implementing policies that have the effect of excluding obese people. When combined with the stigma of being overweight and the social acceptability of openly airing biases against people who are fat, obese individuals often feel they have little recourse but to grin and bear it. But they don’t have to do that.

    Facts About Obesity in the United States

  1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labels American society as “obesogenic,” which means our lifestyles promote unhealthy eating and sedentary living. It is not surprising then that more than one-third of the population is considered obese. The CDC estimates that the direct and indirect cost of obesity (much of it in health care spending) is about $147 billion each year. Surprisingly, the more each of us weighs, the greater the amount of open bias is expressed against people who are overweight in all domains of life, in media, in schools and certainly in the workplace. Some research suggests that because being thin is becoming increasingly rarer, discrimination against the overweight is more accepted.

    2. Obesity Discrimination in the Workplace

  2. Discrimination against people who are obese is as common as that against minorities. Moreover being overweight has been proven to affect one’s salary. Routinely, an obese person’s experience includes being excluded from certain activities, passed over for promotion and being the butt of unrestrained joking. But part of the problem many obese people face is that it is difficult to prove that a worker is being discriminated against because of his weight. Moreover, overweight people, especially the women among them, pay a huge price in terms of their salary. They earn considerably less money than normal-weight individuals according to research, making discrimination against them clear-cut.

    3. Wellness in the Workplace

  3. Another factor making the plight of obese workers tough is that employers are stepping up efforts to reduce the cost of health care and increasing the incentives for employees to kick bad habits and get healthier. There is a business case to wellness programs in the workplace. The toll of lost days, restrictions on activities employees can perform and doctor visits add up. The cumulative effect, however, is that those workers who are significantly overweight are both demoralized and demonized and in a position of not being able to say so.

    4. Workplace Policy Discrimination

  4. Some companies have implemented policies whereby overweight employees have to pay more for their health insurance, because of the increased risk of greater spending obesity-related health care necessitates. The bottom line is that even well-meaning policy may cross the line and be discriminating against people who are overweight and intrude into their private lives.

    5. Recourse

  5. People who feel they’ve been discriminated against or made to work in a hostile environment because of their weight have a tough job ahead of them in proving their weight was at issue, as well as combating the mind-set that keeps weight bias firmly in place.Some have attempted to gain protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, claiming obesity was a disability. Few have succeeded with this argument because for many there was no proven physiological, no-fault cause of obesity. That means there aren’t any federal laws that specifically prohibit this kind of discrimination.In most workplaces, however, equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws prohibit specific types of employment discrimination, including on the basis of race, sex, age, gender, nationality and disability status. Only a handful of states, including California and Michigan, specifically include weight as a category of workplace discrimination. What really has to change is the culture and its response to obesity. Advocates for obese people say the best way to enjoy a fruitful career is to look for companies that do well with all types of diversity and work in a way to challenge the stereotypes and biases against them.

source: ehow.com

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Employee Relations Best Practices: Costco’s Approach to HR

“When employees are happy, they are your very best ambassadors.”- Jim Sinegal, CEO, Costco.

In 2008, Ethisphere named Sinegal to their list of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics- he was ranked #37. The emphasis on employees at Costco is the key to the company’s success and ability to consistently provide a better shopping experience for its members. Jim Sinegal is the perfect example of how the tone at the top sets the tone for the entire company. Costco has developed a reputation as an employer of choice and has maintained a positive public image, all thanks to their brand ambassadors- their employees.

The Costco Way

There a many lessons learned when looking at the Costco story. Many executives once believed that it would be impossible to keep prices low if a company was paying employees high wages and paying for majority of the employee benefits package- Costco is proof that this isn’t always the case. Costco executives understand the impact and importance that good employees can have in an organization. In the Fast Company CEO Interview with Sinegal, they stated that:

“Wall Street grumbles that Costco cares more about its customers and employees than its shareholders; it pays workers an average of $17 an hour and covers 90% of health-insurance costs for both full-timers and part-timers. Yet revenues have grown by 70% in the past five years, and its stock has doubled.”

At Costco, there is a desire to always perform better. Perks such as higher wages, benefits and opportunity for growth allow Costco to attract a large pool of candidates that are of higher quality and are more committed to their job. In the Workforce article, “Welcome to the Club“, they reported that:

“In addition to offering some of the best wages and benefits in the retail industry, Costco rewards employees with bonuses and other incentives. It promotes from within, encourages workers to make suggestions and to air grievances and gives managers autonomy to experiment with their departments or stores to boost sales or shave expenses as they see fit.”

All About the Employees

Much of the emphasis on culture and values at Costco is attributed to the personal interests of Sinegal, their CEO. During the Fast Company interview, they asked Sinegal for his opinion on the rising gas prices- his response:

“Even employees who work at Costco- who make the type of wages that we pay- are being hit at the gas pump. We’re working very hard to schedule people from the same part of town so they can drive together. We’re encouraging van pools. We’re even testing 10-hour days, something we’ve never done in the past. If we can schedule some employees for four 10-hour days, that’s one day they don’t have to drive to work. They’ve got a 20% savings in their gas right there.”

His response to the question really shouldn’t be surprising- I think the shock factor is the fact that a CEO actually takes these types of external factors into consideration when planning for their business. These types of responses paint a clear picture of the culture at Costco. Costco focuses on putting their employees first, which has lead to low employee turnover rates. In the long run, this increased rate of retention has allowed Costco to save on labour costs while continuing to provide employees with significant wages and benefit packages.

When employees feel important and that there is value in the work that they do, it makes it harder to leave their current position and seek out new work. Front-line employees are the ones that interact with your company’s customers each day and are ultimately the ones that communicate the values and culture of your brand to the public. When employees are not passionate about their work or their brand, their attitudes have the ability to influence the customer’s shopping experience. Sinegal started out his retail career as a bagger, working through the ranks to VP Merchandising and Operations at FedMart- eventually co-founding Costco in 1983. Since he has worked in a variety of retail positions throughout his career, Sinegal understands the motivators and impact that every position has on the overall success of Costco.

Tech Crunch discusses the factors of success at Costco in the article “Integrating Ethics Into The Core Of Your Startups: Why And How“, stating that:

“The company’s per-employee sales are considerably higher than those of key rivals such as Target and Wal-Mart; customer service at the stores is phenomenal and fast; and Costco continues to expand, both in number of warehouses and in products and services for business and consumer customers.”

The Costco story teaches us all a few lessons that can be applied to our own workplaces: think of the long-term impact of your actions, reduce employee turnover and at all times- let your employees know they matter.

source: i-sight

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