SEATTLE >> Seattle’s $15-an-hour minimum wage law has cost the city jobs, according to a study released Monday that contradicted another new study published last week.
A University of Washington team studying the law’s effects found that the law boosted pay in low-wage jobs since it took effect in 2015 but also caused a 9 percent reduction in hours worked, The Seattle Times reported. That’s a loss of about $125 per month for an average low-wage worker, the study said.
Last week a review by University of California, Berkeley, economists found the law raised pay without hurting jobs in the restaurant industry. An author of that report, Michael Reich, criticized the University of Washington team’s methodology.
Fox Sports trades web writing for video
21st Century Fox Inc.’s sports department is overhauling its online operations, eliminating the writing staff to invest in more lucrative video production.
Fox Sports will eliminate about 20 writing and editing positions in Los Angeles and replace them with a similar number of jobs in video production, editing and promotion. Executives told staff members Monday after outlining the new strategy in a memo obtained by Bloomberg. Affected employees will be encouraged to apply for the new posts.
The owner of Fox News and the Fox broadcast network has decided that paying writers to cover sporting events, pen columns or grade teams’ NBA draft moves is best left to ESPN and other news-focused sports sites. Fox is opting to divert those resources into producing online video that complements on-air shows, can be packaged into advertising sales across the web and TV, and has the potential to go viral on social media.
U.S. adults watched 67 minutes of online video a day in 2016, according to data from eMarketer. They watched just three minutes of online video a day in 2009. Ad sales for digital video have been growing 39 percent a year over that span.
Borrowers wait for college loan forgiveness
BOSTON >> New federal data suggest no new student loan forgiveness applications have been approved out of more than 64,000 pending applications. Thousands of former students of failed for-profit colleges were promised forgiveness by the Obama administration.
Borrower advocates say the process to get loans canceled appears to have slowed since President Donald Trump took office.
ON THE MOVE
Bank of Hawaii has announced the following senior executive promotions:
Kristi Lefforge to senior vice president and chief audit executive of its Internal Audit Department from vice president and senior audit manager. Prior to joining the bank in July, she was executive director of Intraprise TechKnowlogies LLC and senior manager at KMH LLP in Honolulu, and corporate audit manager for Honda North America, program manager and financial operations manager for Underwriters Insurance Group and manager for KPMG Peat Marwick LLP in California.
Michael Taylor to executive vice president and corporate real estate and facilities manager from senior vice president. He previously served at the bank from 2011 to 2014 as vice president and real estate manager for Corporate Facilities, returning to the bank in 2015 after working as a commercial real estate broker for Commercial Asset Advisors. His additional experience as a commercial real estate broker includes being principal of The Taylor Group and vice president at T3 Advisors LLC in Boston.
