Annual US worker pay gains rose at fastest pace since 2008

WASHINGTON — U.S. workers saw their annual wages and benefits rise in the second quarter at the fastest pace in nearly a decade, a sign that the low unemployment rate is forcing employers to raise pay to attract and keep workers.

Pay and benefits for all U.S. workers increased 2.8 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, the most since the third quarter of 2008. Total compensation for private industry workers — which excludes state and local employees — rose 2.9 percent, the best since the second quarter of 2008.

The unemployment rate is near an 18-year low of 4 percent, leaving employers scrambling to find the workers they need. There are more open jobs than there are unemployed workers, according to government data, for the first time since records began in 2000.

A separate measure of wages and salaries for private sector workers rose 2.9 percent in the past year, matching March’s gain and the highest in nearly a decade.

Still, pay gains slowed in the second quarter. Total compensation — which includes pay and benefits such as health insurance — increased 0.6 percent, down from 0.8 percent in the first three months of the year.

Wages and salaries, which make up about 70 percent of total compensation, slowed even more, to 0.5 percent from 0.9 percent in the first quarter.

https:// chicago.suntimes.com/business/worker-annual-pay-wages-benefits/

07/31/2018, 06:12am

Trial set to begin for ex-Trump campaign chairman Manafort

ByAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — Two questions loom large as Paul Manafort prepares to walk into a federal courtroom Tuesday: Will Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman spend what effectively could be the rest of his life in prison? Or will special counsel Robert Mueller be handed a defeat in his team’s first trial since his appointment more than a year ago?

Those questions will be answered by 12 jurors selected this week as Manafort’s trial on tax evasion and bank fraud charges gets underway at the courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia. The pool of jurors will face questions from both sides and U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III as they try to weed out potential prejudice in what has become a highly publicized and politically divisive investigation.

That task comes as the president and his lawyer-spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, have intensified their attempts to undermine the Mueller investigation in the court of public opinion and as the president continues to waffle on whether he’ll sit for a private interview with prosecutors. The president criticized Mueller by name over the weekend and continues to refer to the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference as a “witch hunt” and “an illegal scam.”

While the main areas of Mueller’s investigation are Russia’s actions during the 2016 presidential election and any attempts by Trump to obstruct justice, none of those topics are expected to come up in Manafort’s trial. In fact, prosecutors said last week they don’t expect the word “Russia” to be mentioned at all.

Instead, the trial will center on Manafort’s Ukrainian consulting work and only briefly touch on his involvement with the president’s campaign.

Prosecutors have lined up 35 witnesses and more than 500 pieces of evidence they say will show how Manafort earned more than $60 million from his Ukrainian work and then concealed a “significant percentage” of that money from the IRS. Prosecutors will also argue that Manafort fraudulently obtained millions more in bank loans, including during his time on the campaign.

https:// chicago.suntimes.com/news/trial-set-to-begin-for-ex-trump-campaign-chairman-manafort/