Vadym Buinov | Moment | Getty Images Working parents, guardians or caretakers know the challenge of striking the delicate balance between work and care responsibilities. From paid parental leave to quality health-care coverage and equal pay that cover child care costs, it’s become a priority for workers to find an employer that recognizes parents have specific needs. With no federal oversight of workplace benefits like paid leave and caregiving policies, corporate leaders are being asked to take the lead. CNBC partner Just Capital looked through policy disclosures at America’s largest companies to find the best in the country at meeting…
Author: insighter
Are credit card rewards and airline frequent flyer programs too complicated? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) thinks so. Now, the government agency is considering cracking down on these kinds of rewards programs, according to a recent report from the CFPB. In a joint hearing Thursday with the CFPB and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), a panel of representatives from small airlines, banks and consumer advocacy groups, argued that major credit card companies engage in potentially unfair or deceptive practices that might affect travelers. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg moderated the panel. Problems…
Last month, when Bordeaux was just verging on springtime, I was reveling in silky textured wines from the 2023 vintage. Many were far better than I expected, especially after hearing so many tales of growing-season hardship from winemakers. Many seemed relieved just to have made it through the vintage without experiencing total disaster. Overall, the wines are far too heterogenous to call 2023 a great vintage, though some are pure magic. “You can’t put the 2023s into any category,” says Omri Ram at Pomerol’s Château Lafleur, one of my top wines. “It’s like every château experienced a different vintage.” The annual rite of Bordeaux en…
CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday guided investors through next week’s market action, telling them to pay attention to a number of earnings reports, including Home Depot, Alibaba and Walmart. He also suggested remarks from Federal Reserve officials will continue to shape the market, saying investors should tune in on Monday to commentary from Loretta Mester, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. “The more these Fed officials entertain us with their hawkish commentary, as long as they keep us on the edge of their seats, the more likely it is that the Fed can cut rates in the…
The AAA credit card portfolio requires a little history lesson. After Bread Financial formally partnered with AAA in 2022, the companies launched two co-branded credit cards: the AAA Travel Advantage Visa Signature Credit Card and the AAA Daily Advantage Visa Signature Credit Card. Both are issued by Bread Financial, formerly Comenity Bank, and offer solid rewards rates, although earnings are capped. A third co-branded card, the AAA Cashback credit card, is issued by U.S. Bank. The Travel Advantage and Daily Advantage credit cards have similar features, but they differ from their Cashback cousin when it comes to eligibility requirements, rewards…
Maria Kang has never been one for keeping quiet. The Sacramento-based fitness influencer and mother of three has gone viral several times—first a little over a decade ago, when she posted a super-fit photo of herself in workout gear, surrounded by her three kids, and captioned it, “What’s your excuse?” The post quickly racked up 16 million views and triggered endless ire from women who took umbrage over what they saw as a body-shaming attack. Kang was called obnoxious, a bully, an idiot. But it only fueled her fire, catapulting her into years of frenzied health-and-wellness entrepreneurism—she owns a collection…
More than 1.8 million U.S. businesses are owned by people with disabilities and a higher percentage of working-age people with disabilities rely on self-employment compared with working-age people without disabilities, according to a National Disability Institute report published in April 2022. Starting and running a business can require significant capital, and finding business loans and grants can be challenging for any entrepreneur, including people with disabilities and other members of underserved communities who often face barriers to financing[0]. However, there are business funding options as well as other resources for people with disabilities. We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to…
Courtneyk | E+ | Getty Images Mortgages, currency exchange complicates a purchase While there may be similarities to the U.S. market when buying a home overseas, there are also unique challenges on the financial side of the purchase. Oftentimes, Americans buying properties abroad end up financing the transaction with cash outright, experts say. If you do want to finance your home purchase, assess the options to consider how often you may be exposed to interest rate changes. That’s because mortgage structures in foreign countries are more likely to have variable rates, or short terms if they are fixed-rate loans. It…
Years ago, I received a surprise in the mail: a $500 bill for a recent X-ray. I was earning an entry-level media salary at the time (for the uninitiated, that’s equivalent to peanuts), and the shock of having to figure out how to cover an unexpected expense sent my pulse racing with anxiety and my head pounding with stress. I was in good company. Research shows again and again that our finances can take a toll on our minds. Money has consistently topped Americans’ list of stressors since the American Psychological Association began running its annual Stress in America Survey…
Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2022. Ting Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images The U.S. banking industry won a key victory in its effort to block the implementation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that would’ve drastically limited the fees that credit card companies can charge for late payment. A federal court on late Friday approved the industry’s last-minute legal effort to pause the implementation of a regulation that was announced in March and set to go into effect on Tuesday.…
Drug shortages are an ongoing fact of life, and many Americans have known the inconvenience of having to wait to fill a prescription. But shortages have mounted in recent years, alarming observers and generating headlines. The number of prescription drugs in shortage climbed to a 10-year high of 323 in the first quarter of 2024 — but it’s not just about the numbers. Patients and their health care providers are also being hit with much more consequential shortages, some with potentially life-altering results. Hospital crash carts, used to provide emergency treatment to patients with critical conditions like cardiac arrest, have…
It’s no secret that retailers are cracking down on returns. In 2023, 81% of U.S. retailers implemented pay-to-return policies in some capacity. Amazon, Macy’s, T.J.Maxx, Walmart and Staples all rolled out changes to their established return policies. That may look like shrinking return windows, charging for some returns, or in some cases simply telling shoppers to “keep it” Shoppers racked up more than $5 trillion worth of retail sales in the U.S. last year, according to the National Retail Federation. About 14.5% of those sales were returned. That equates to an enormous value in returned goods: $743 billion in 2023…