Minimum wage rising

Chapter 16 Payroll Accounting

Link: http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1495889

Summary
This article is about the minimum wage that employers pay to their employees are rising. Back in 2003, the minimum wage for adult workers was $6.85, but now the current wage of $8.75 will rise to $9.50 on march 31. It is under the law that

"100% of net earnings are deducted from social assistance cheques for recipients for the first three months, but after that it's a 50% deduction so there will be a little extra then"

This raise is part of the provincial government's poverty reduction strategy which is to reduce the number of children living in poverty, estimated by 25% over five years. The government has also scheduled the next minimum wage increase for next year which would have a total increase of $3.40 per hour to the minimum wage since 2003. Also, it is expected that student minimum wage will also rise on March 31.

Connection
This article is connected to chapter 16 in accounting 12 by wage and deductions. These employees are payed by wages for their labour on an hourly basis. They are fortunate to receive $0.75 more than usual but as said in the article, "for those on social assistance, the increase will mean "not a lot"". Of course, it is better than nothing. Since this increase is stil a bit tight to workers, they would still have to face payroll deductions from their gross pay. Deductions such as income tax, RRSP, and maybe union dues deduction may even lower their net pay to a point where employees are devastated.

Reflection
In my point of view, it seems like this amount for minimum wage is not bad to students but a bit restricted to adults. Adults have more to worry about such as paying bills and maybe even taking care of their family. However, I think it really depends on what kind of labour the employee is performing and how much work you have to put into it. Commissions would help the troubled people more because it can influence them into working harder and making more sales. It can also demonstrate their strong performance to their employers and hopefully earning them a raise. Overall, this improvement would definately decrease the number of poverty for people, especially childen.

Warning about RV sales scam

Accounting 12 Chapter 14

Link: http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/39372469.html

Summary

This article is about a person trying to sell their recreational vehicle through an online ad. The person received an email, often the name of Nathan Seer or Rich Edmund, to say that they are a likely buyer. The buyer offers a flat cash payment by using a cheque from an earlier deal that never succeeded . However, the cheque is for a bigger amount than the RV's selling price so the buyer explains to the seller that he can send him a cheque for the difference. The seller in the end realized that he had receieved a NSF and lost as much as $10 000 not including the RV.

Connection

The connection between chapter fourteen and this article is not sufficient funds. The dishonoured cheque that the man receieved has made him lose thousands of dollars. Not only did he lose the RV and roughly around $10 000, he also has to be responsible for any counterfeit or NSF cheques, including fees, interest and repayment of the full amount. The article also mentions that the buyer should be advised that the cheque is certified (the bank takes the funds out of the issuer's account in advance) in order to confirm that the cheque is good.

Reflection

I think issuing a cheque is not only convenient but also risky. It seems like it is a gamble between whether the issuer is reliable or not. If the issuer is not, then the receiver would get a NSF and on top of that service charges to pay despite that they are the innocent party. It seems unfair for the innocent party to pay service charges when they are the ones that has lost a huge amount of money. I think it's best if the issuer gets charged of around 10% of what they issued in the bounce cheque in order to lower the possibility of scams.

Telus to open Vegas call centre

Accounting Chapter 15



Link: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=984f5691-232c-4c6c-9623-4355d0cfe243

Summary:
This article is about the company, Telus, planning to open a call center in Las Vegas, Nev.. The call center will provide Spanish-language support to the customer service line and also Telus members that are able to speak Spanish, in order to better serve their customers. This project would create up to 1000 job opportunities in Las Vegas, as well as some "headquarter style" jobs in Canada. The Telus spokesman guaranteed no job losses in Alberta thats related to the project because the Vegas call centre is function to adding capacity to the Telus' business in order to grow. The new call centre is said to be part of a tentative agreement between Telus and the city of Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency.

Connection:
The connection between chapter 15 and this article is the decisions being made by company with the help of useful financial statements and percentages. During this difficult economic time, many companies are pulling out their financial statements to analayze how they're doing in order to not get pulled into the economic problems. Telus has decided to create a new call centre, which is considered an unlikely move due to the economic slowdown of many business. Their financial statements are very important to Telus' decision because they would probably have to study them so that they can come up with the best solution to boost their sales and net profit. The sales percentage of their years of business would definately help them because they would want to know what projects or new ideas had increase their sales heavily. Also, Las Vegas Redevlopment Agency also must study Telus' financial statements to see if opening their call center would benefit the Las Vegas' economicy

Reflection:
Although opening a call centre in Las Vegas may sound risky because of the number of people who are slowing down in their purchases, it may be a good idea to Telus for a change. Their ideas of including Spanish as a language for their service and even opening in a city where there are populated spanish-speaking people is a interesting idea. This can grab more people into using Telus because they can understand spanish instead of english. Telus' project can also increase job opportunities for people since many people are getting laid off.

Cash Discount For Gas Is A Joke

Accounting 12, Chapter 12

Link: http://www.courant.com/news/local/columnists/hc-ubinas1005.artoct05,0,423379.column


Summary
Remember couple weeks ago the gas price was as high as 1.20-1.50. That's when people use as low of an amount of gas needed as possible. This article is about the Legislature in the States passing a bill in June, hoping that they'll help the people in the gas prices. This bill allows gas stations to offer a 10% discount to people who pay by cash. Some people are angry of how they thought they were going to get a discount for gas but only to find that it was offered to people who pay cash. People are blaming the gas station owners when the gas station owners are the ones that are pushed with fees by the oil company and credit card companies.

Connection
Cash discount--a deduction in the price of an item for sale allowed if payment is made within a stipulated period or earlier.

This is the connection between the article and chapter 12 of Accounting 12. It is stated in the article that if you were to pay 100% fully in cash when you purchase gas, you would immediately receive a 10% discount. This is a cash discount because unfortunately, if people were to pay by credit card, they will not get any discount. Although this is a bill passed by the legislature, I think the gas station owners would like this bill too. They could receive the cash right away without waiting for people to pay their credits and also their fees that they may need to pay for the credit company would be reduced.

Reflection
Although this sounds like a good idea to pay full cash when purchase, I think it is unfair to the credit card users. Society today uses enhanced technology so it is more common to bring a single plastic card instead of a bundle of cash. People can get robbed and lose their cash and never get it back while others can just cancel their credit card if it is lost or stolen. In other words, credit cards are more convenient. If the government would like to help people with the outrageous price of gas, maybe it would be more reasonable that their help would affect everyone, not just a group of people like the cash users.

Paying a price for houses that aren't homes

Accounting 12, Chapter 11

Link: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=165a2f84-b1f0-41cf-a494-568c87bdf8a4

Summary:
This article or somewhat of a blog is written by Shelly Fralic, found in the Vancouver Sun website and it talks about how many people are buying houses not for living in but investing it. Everyone wants to know what's selling and where, how much it is and who's buying it. Fralic thinks that everywhere we go, there's people talking about houses. She's frustrated that people aren't buying houses because of habiting in it but instead, investing it. She wonders why people aren't celebrating the affordable houses, but instead complaining that value of real estates are going downwards.

Connections:
The connection between this article and chapter eleven is that this idea of people investing on houses instead of living in them is similar to businesses that buy goods for the pupose of selling them for a profit. Many people are buying houses, wishing that the value of it would rise so that they could resell it. Like what Fralic said "Does it matter so much that your home's value might fluctuate in price over time, or that the profit on its future sale won't be the bonanza we expect?", it is possible that the houses may depreciate a lot over time and maybe in the end, they are not profitable anymore.

Reflection:
I think this reason of buying houses is ridiculouse because houses are suppose to be meant to be lived in. People should be fortunate that houses are getting cheaper. It is difficult to expect such high prices on houses because of how stock markets are going through a dramatic change and possibly a recession. Also, because of how the economy is right now, it is hard to expect a major profit through investing houses.