The great news this morning that Apple is considering bringing back some production to the United States brought out the pessimist in me.

This was my first tweet of the day:

US-made tech products are best/but will apple bring sweatshops to the US?- Apple CEO wants to make more products in US

There have been several reports lately that manufacturing jobs are starting to come back to our shores, but what’s driving a lot of the turnaround is sinking wages for Americans. No, we still don’t make as little as our Chinese counterparts, but the wallets of average American workers has been getting thinner everyday.

This from a Wall Street Journal article from Monday titled “Flat U.S. Wages Help Fuel Rebound in Manufacturing”:

With unemployment still high and global competition intense, employers have the upper hand in asking unions to relax work rules and restrain, or reduce, wages and benefits. Scores of U.S. companies have negotiated two-tier contracts with unions that allow them to pay new hires less than existing workers or otherwise restrain wage and benefit costs.

Indeed, real wages for U.S. workers grew at their slowest rate in two years, this on the heels of a report that CEOs brought in record pay checks in 2011.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook made close to $400 million in compensation last year. The average Apple worker in China makes: (more…)

I recently had a to-do list meltdown.

I keep a written list in a reporter’s note book of things I have to do, but I decided to add another list for up-coming stories and story ideas. My brain is always overflowing with ideas but I’ve found if I don’t write them down right away those ideas disappear back into that creative nook in my head and never come out again.

Well, somehow I got both lists mixed up and inadvertently started yet another to-do list in another book, and somehow I ended up using that one as a make-shift plate for my midday snack, and couldn’t find it under the rubble.

All to-do list hell broke loose. What had I finished? What was left to do? Were the words written in my chicken scratch — “worker, fired” — a reminder to email someone or a story idea?

I sat there frustrated, wondering why the heck I needed these lists anyway. I never used to rely on them? Was my brain aging?

Turns out, I’m not alone. According to a Linkedin study released this week, 63 percent of professionals often keep to-do lists. And guess who needs them the most? (more…)

It’s a question that comes up often and it came up yet again yesterday: “Can an employer ask a job candidate how old they are?”

A colleague of mine at MSNBC.com, economy reporter Allison Linn, got this type of question from a reader on Facebook and we both pondered whether it was legal or not.

My gut feeling was this was a no no under the nation’s labor laws, but it turns out it’s not that cut and dry. (more…)

So, employers looking to hire younger workers want many of you to have had internships. Only problem, most of the same employers don’t provide such internship opportunities.

Great graphic by Millennial Branding on what employers are looking for in Gen Y candidates: (more…)

If women stopped getting pregnant the world would eventually cease to exist. So why is it so hard to get equal rights for the pregos among us already?

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was signed into law in 1978 but it seems that wasn’t enough to stop employers from discriminating against pregnant workers.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charges of pregnancy bias have been hovering at the 6,000 mark since 2007.

“A few employers have forgotten, or never learned, that it’s against the law to discriminate against women because of pregnancy,” David Lopez, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s general counsel, told me earlier this year during a public meeting about the problem.

So, what to do? What about yet another law? (more…)

I love comeback stories, and there are few as good as drug-addicted jailbird Robert Downey Jr.’s story.

The actor is now at the top of his game, and the huge opening of “The Avengers,” in which Downey stars as Iron Man, is only going to propel his career further.

I took my nine year old son to see the movie yesterday and we both agreed Iron Man was the best thing about the flick.

That’s why I was so excited to read the latest issue of Esquire with Downey on the cover, and I was even more excited when I read some of his advice about work and careers, which espoused the benefits of having crappy jobs. (more…)

Sometimes a graphic is worth a thousand blog words:

You have to wonder how many employees in this country are being screwed out of the pay they’re owned when major corporations with fleets of labor lawyers keep thwarting the law.

On Monday, the Department of Labor announced yet another settlement, this time with mega retailers Wal-Mart, involving unpaid overtime and the misclassification of workers.

This wasn’t just a handful of workers who weren’t paid what they were owed. We’re talking 4,500 across the country. And this comes a year after a $40 million plus settlement for Wal-Mart stemming from charges it didn’t give workers appropriate meal breaks and pay.

I’m glad Wal-mart agrees to pay back wages when caught — the latest to the tune of nearly $5 million — but you’ve got to scratch your head over how this happens.

Office supply giant Staples also settled similar charges of misclassifying workers last year.

Is this just corruption by companies trying to make an even bigger profit, or did someone just not get the memo on how the nation’s labor laws work? (more…)

Yes, women can have it all. But just like men, sometimes we need a little help, especially working moms.

If you have a husband, or significant other, and this person isn’t supportive of your career you might as well throw dreams of keys to the executive bathroom down the toilet.

You actually may be better off if you’re a single mom so there’s no illusion that you have support to balance it all.

I’ve heard this from executive women for some time, and this week a great Wall Street Journal article on the top women in the CEO pipeline just reinforces this notion.

The piece talks about all the women at corporations right now who are seen as potential successors to existing CEOs, and with so many women waiting in the wings, experts predict the number of women top executives will double by 2017. Don’t get too excited. The number of gals holding the big corner office seats are only about 14 percent, but hey, any increases would be great.

There was one line in the story that really hit home for me, and it points to how important it is to have a spouse who realizes how important what you’re doing is. Of the ten women identified as potential CEOs:

“… of the nine in the group who have children, many have husbands who abandoned the fast track to support their wives’ careers.”

It’s not an easy thing to hear because it points to how difficult these jobs can be, and how little has changed in Corporate America when it comes to being family friendly. But it should be a wake up call for women considering hooking up with a lover who may say they love you but don’t provide loving support.

You can’t changed him honey, especially when you’re climbing the ladder.