MoneyWatch

Starbucks’ sales climbed to record levels in the coffee chain’s second quarter, but its profits took a hit from climbing labor and ingredient costs and as additional stores unionize.  The Seattle coffee company — which welcomed back former CEO Howard Schultz last month as its interim leader — said revenue …

Nineteen of the biggest American corporations paid little or no taxes last year, according to a new analysis of financial filings by liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP). That comes as U.S. companies enjoyed their most profitable year since 1950, thanks to government support as well as a …

Technology companies led a broad slide for stocks on Wall Street as investors look ahead to the upcoming company earnings reporting season and what it will reveal about the impact inflation is having on corporate profits. The S&P 500 fell 1.7%, adding to its recent losses. The Dow Jones Industrial …

California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations is at a crossroads, with members divided on which Black Americans should be eligible for compensation as atonement for a slave system that officially ended with the Civil War but reverberates to this day. Some members want to limit financial and other compensation to …

Thousands of central and Southern California grocery workers have voted to authorize their union to call a strike against several major supermarket chains as contract negotiations are set to resume this week. About 47,000 workers at hundreds of Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions voted starting last week and the results …

Word to the wise, lottery players: Check your junk mail.  A Michigan woman is thanking her lucky stars after sifting through her own email spam folder and accidentally stumbling on a message from state lottery officials announcing that she’d won $3 million. Laura Spears had bought a Mega Millions ticket …

Kellogg’s employees have rejected a contract proposal offering 3% annual raises, with 1,400 workers at the company’s four U.S. cereal plants choosing to remain on strike. The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International (BCTGM) Union said on Tuesday that an overwhelming majority of workers voted down the five-year offer, …

More than 300,000 maintenance, security and child care workers will get a raise starting next year under a new $15 an hour minimum wage for federal contractors, the Labor Department said Monday. The new compensation scheme stems from an April executive order by President Joe Biden that raises the pay of …

“Buy now, pay later,” or BNPL, payment plans let consumers break up their total purchase at checkout into a series of smaller installments. Though these plans aren’t new, they’ve recently catapulted into the mainstream, with major U.S. retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target now offering them. Mastercard in September also unveiled its …

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is renewing calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, tweeting on Saturday that “We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period.”  On Sunday, Elon Musk — the world’s richest person — fired back: “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive.” Musk, …