Will Increasing the Minimum Wage Hurt or Help Employees & Businesses? For many American workers, minimum-wage employment was a temporary, teenage condition, as we bussed tables or answered phones or cleaned rooms for tiny paychecks before moving on to more financially rewarding work. However in 2011, 3.8 million American workers -- most of whom were out of their teens -- earned the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or less, according to estimates by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And recently, debate has heated up about whether the government should raise the minimum wage, increasin... view article details

Is it time for a tablet? Think about how much paper you use at your job on a daily basis. You print out emails and spreadsheets, take notes during meetings and fill out forms which are then shipped across the office.But all three tasks can now be accomplished using tablet computers which saves time, increases productivity and ensures at least a few more trees will remain standing.Top Productivity Apps for Going Paperless Apps like Documents To Go and Quickoffice® Pro allow you to open Microsoft Word (doc) files or Microsoft Excel (xls) files. You can also “print” to an Adobe ... view article details

If you’ve elevated into management, you can often negotiate higher bonuses, stock options, and profit sharing, tying your performance into the success of the overall company. Since you may have put your stake down on a house, priorities change in that you might take a job that’s closer to home, has a less brutal commute, or allows you flextime to work from a home office a few times per week. And with your kids reaching school play and Disneyland age, you’ll want to lobby for more vacation to keep up your work-life balance.For those not ready to throw in the flag on middle age just yet, many pr... view article details

Before You Relocate, Pick the Strategy That Makes Sense for You On a cold January day many years ago, Eric was visiting his parents and sat down for a nice Sunday night dinner. He had an announcement. After living his entire life on the east coast, he declared that he wanted to find a new job in a different part of the country. By the end of the summer, he wanted to live in one of his target cities: Seattle, San Francisco, or Austin. His parents, who had always been supportive, listened intently. His mom chimed in, “That sounds exciting. When you get a job offer, make sure you negotiate for... view article details

If you open up a biology textbook and look at the pictures, you'll find a number of dull images of DNA, chromosomes, and photosynthesis that have been putting you to sleep since high school. Unless you’re looking at a book with new and enthralling scientific illustrations by Nicolle Fuller. As an independent science artist, Fuller conceptualizes and creates the scientific images found in magazines, scientific journals, and textbooks. Her artwork runs the gamut from paintings of ancient dinosaurs to intricate depictions of highly complex cellular systems. What every one of her pieces has in com... view article details

This Job is a Blast! Everything’s been planned, down to the tiniest detail. Sketched. Built. Tested. Tested again. Cameras roll…"Fire in the hole!" You turn a key, sending an electric current from a briefcase containing a battery to the explosive device, and then…KABOOM! A cheer goes up from the crew. The place: the set of an upcoming action movie. You: the pyrotechnician, a highly trained expert in the art of explosives technologies. In short, the guy who blows things up for a living. Okay, so it isn’t a Wile E. Coyote box of TNT with a two-mile fuse, but what kid doesn’t love playing with fi... view article details

Conflicting Personality Styles Could be the Cause of Workplace Strife Research shows that 60-80% of trouble in the workplace is due to strained relationships among employees, not from issues with their skills or motivation. Not surprisingly, as a result, typical managers spend 25-40% of their time dealing with conflicts. No one wants to work in such a contentious environment. But is it possible to change this situation? Yes, when you recognize that many conflicts are due to personality style differences and can be minimized with just a bit of awareness and effort. See which of these camps... view article details

As you probably heard, or suffered yourself, Slack was down for about four hours on June 27th, the latest in a series of short-term outages this year. Sorry if you had to read the “omg I have to talk to my coworkers in person!” quip 17 times. But as we waded through the same six jokes on people being addicted to virtual communication, our HR senses began to tingle.   Slack, which launched in August 2013, is a cloud-based platform that allows individuals and teams to collaborate on projects and share memes. It stands for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge,” thus providing the hel... view article details

Which statement best describes how you make a decision?The best decisions are the result of thorough research, where several alternatives are considered, and the pros and cons of each are weighed carefully before reaching a fact-based decision.The best decisions are the result of input from a group—two heads are better than one, and three heads are better than two.The best decisions are the ones I make unilaterally. Just kidding—sort of.The best decisions are the result of brainstorming possibilities and choosing the one that everyone is most excited about.If you are familiar with personality ... view article details

For a lot of us, filing taxes is only slightly more fun than having a fender bender, and not quite as exciting as a major dental procedure. No wonder we put off wrestling with the 1040 form.But even at this late date, there's plenty of help out there to get your tax return filed correctly, and on time--whether you have a professional prepare it or do it yourself.1. Don't rush 'Do not compromise the tax return by rushing to get it completed,' says Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, based in Parsippany, N. J. 'A lot of people do this -- and they leave money on... view article details