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Desperate for workers, US restaurants and stores raise pay

WASHINGTON — U.S. restaurants and stores are rapidly raising pay in an urgent effort to attract more applicants and keep up with a flood of customers as the pandemic eases. McDonald’s, Sheetz and Chipotle are just some of the latest companies to follow Amazon, Walmart and Costco in boosting wages, in some cases to $15 an hour or higher. The pay gains are, of course, a boon to these employees. Restaurants, bars, hotels and stores remain the lowest-paying industries, and many of their workers ran the risk of contracting COVID-19 on the job over the past year while white-collar ...

How companies rip off poor employees — and get away with it

Already battered by long shifts and high infection rates, essential workers struggling through the pandemic face another hazard of hard times: employers who steal their wages. When a recession hits, U.S. companies are more likely to stiff their lowest-wage workers. These businesses often pay less than the minimum wage, make employees work off the clock, or refuse to pay overtime rates. In the most egregious cases, bosses don’t pay their employees at all. Companies that hire child care workers, gas station clerks, restaurant servers and security guards are among the businesses ...

Bank names new registered representative

Rob Glunk, president and CEO of The Muncy Bank and Trust Company, recently announced that Matthew J. Mann has joined the company as a registered representative. In his new position, his main responsibility will be to offer a full range of investment service and insurance products to ...

CARES Act funding allows free online training

IMC has partnered with Tooling U-SME, an online training provider, to off-set the cost of bringing high-quality, customized, onsite training to manufacturers. More than 500 unique online classes provide a broad offering of manufacturing training topics. Every online class has been reviewed and validated by industry experts. Online training from IMC and Tooling U-SME offers a quick-start, progressive road map that allows manufacturers to build career paths for employees. This online training is intended to enhance your existing on-the-job training, to create a job progression plan and ...

US unemployment claims fall to a pandemic low of 498,000

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to 498,000, the lowest point since the viral pandemic struck 14 months ago and a sign of the job market’s growing strength as businesses reopen and consumers step up spending. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that applications declined 92,000 from a revised 590,000 a week earlier. The number of weekly jobless claims — a rough measure of the pace of layoffs — has declined significantly from a peak of 900,000 in January as employers have ramped up hiring. At the same time, the ...

Montoursville students place in FBLA competitions

From left to right are Montoursville Area High School’s Nolan Kutney, Sam Mattie, Ian Labatch and Lanie Mussina. At this years FBLA State Leadership Conference, Kutney, Mattie and Labatch placed 7th in the state in management decision making and Mussina placed first in job interview. In ...