‘People Work for Money’: Pay Transparency Is More Important Now Than Ever + MORE Jun 30th

Before my mat leave, I was stagnating in my old role. Bored and undervalued, I needed a fresh challenge and a fatter paycheque. (Babies are expensive! Toronto is expensive! Life is expensive!) I had a number in mind, with a bunch of beautiful zeroes dancing at the end. But the lack of salary ranges on most job postings transformed my search into the most absurd of exercises; a joyless carousel of mutually wasted time.

Whenever I asked about money during a job interview (still weirdly considered taboo at many workplaces), the interviewer would turn the tables: “What salary range are you looking for?” I’d name my price and was told what I had in mind was outside of their budget. That meeting could have been an email, as the kids say. 

But wasted time is probably the least concerning aspect of pay opacity; it disproportionately puts women and people of colour at a disadvantage—research shows it reinforces pay discrimination—and leads to financial disparities at workplaces and across entire industries…

A recent survey by the Business Council of Canada, or BCC, found that more than two-thirds of companies have had to adjust timelines for projects due to a lack of skilled workers and 60 per cent of those firms are grappling with lost revenues. The BCC surveyed 80 member companies that employ a total of nearly 1.7 million Canadians across 20 industries, from energy to financial services, generating revenues of about $1.2 trillion as of 2020. Even with businesses adjusting hiring expectations in the current labour market, the BCC found that 30 per cent of the companies surveyed are relocating work outside of Canada in order to get projects done.

It’s a problem with serious consequences. Trevor Neiman, director of policy and legal counsel at the BCC, says Canada is losing tens of billions of dollars every year because of the labour shortage…

The severity and duration of price drops vary widely, which can be incredibly stressful for investors—if they don’t have a plan in place. As with bull and bear markets in stock investing, it’s essential to think about how you’ll deal with the volatility of investing in crypto. Without a plan, it’s easy to make hasty, emotionally driven decisions that could hurt your portfolio.

What are bull and bear markets in crypto?

A bull market is a period in the crypto market when prices rise for an extended period. Crypto bull markets have typically lasted for a couple of years. Although these periods do see price drops, they’re usually not as severe as a full-blown bear market, and many investors view them as good buying opportunities for the long term.

Bitcoin—the oldest and largest cryptocurrency (by market capitalization)—has had four bull markets since it broke USD$1 in 2011…

Speaking of Dale, this week he wrote an interesting article for Seeking Alpha, titled “If I could only own 10 stocks.” Six are Canadian, the other four are American. Since he’s in semi-retirement, his picks may appeal to income-seeking retirees, perhaps supplemented by broad-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the ones Dale helps pick for the MoneySense ETF All-stars, of which he is a panellist. 

The case for checking your statements seldom or never

Canada’s financial markets are closed July 1 for Canada Day. And U.S. markets will be closed on Monday, July 4 for Independence Day. 

Stock markets are clearly still in a nasty bear mode. Unlike the fastest bear market ever back in early 2020 that was caused by the pandemic, I suspect this one will linger…