Charter is raising the minimum wage for its 95,000 employees to $15 per hour, including target commissions, the company announced in a blog post Friday. The telecom giant is crediting "the general deregulatory environment" in Washington for allowing it to increase its workforce and capital investments.
Why it matters: The Trump Administration has enacted favorable legislation and regulation toward telecom companies and large corporations. Many, including Charter, have been taking advantage of the regulatory environment by offering employees higher minimum wages or tax-bonuses.
On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow was literally laughing. Over on Fox News, Sean Hannity put up his dukes.
At 9 last night, you could just flip between the two and see an encapsulation of our two Americas — total dismissal of the memo's import, vs. the assertion that it's "only about 15 percent of what's coming."
Major U.S. stocks plummeted Friday, with the Dow sinking 665 points, amid signs that strong wage growth may lead to increased interest rates and inflation.
Why it matters: Today was the worst day for stocks since June 2016, after the Brexit vote in Britain. The plunge could signal that the equity markets had overheated after a remarkable 14 months sparked by booming consumer confidence and the promise of a major tax cut after Donald Trump was elected.
The health care industry added roughly 295,000 jobs in 2017, based on preliminary federal figures, employing 15.9 million people. Hospitals boosted their payrolls by more than 86,000 people last year, or about 30% of all added health care jobs.
By the numbers: The health care jobs engine continues to hum along. The 2017 growth compares with 251,000 added jobs in 2016, 440,000 in 2015 and 293,000 in 2014. But economists say the rising employment in health care is not necessarily a good thing.
HQ, the popular live trivia app, has raised $15 million at a valuation of more than $100 million in a new funding round from Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, according to Recode.
The nitty-gritty: The app, which recently began regularly surpassing more than a million players, had difficulty finding funding after Recode reported last year on the "alleged bad behavior" of its co-founders, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll. The pair, who also co-founded the video app Vine and moved to Twitter following its acquisition, faced reports of poor management and "creepy behavior" during their stint at the social media giant.
Charter Communications added roughly 15,000 customers to its video subscription package in the fourth quarter of 2017, the first time the network has added video subscribers since acquiring Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2016.
Why it matters: Charter CEO Tom Rutledge warned that while these acquisitions would cause a dip in subscriber numbers in the short-term, they would eventually help the company develop stronger relationships with video customers. Those cable bets now seem to be paying off.
Dell Technologies on Friday morning confirmed that it is exploring either an IPO or a reverse merger with VMWare, in which it already holds an 82% stake.
Why it matters: Dell's move to go private in 2013 was the largest tech buyout in history, and its 2016 purchase of EMC was the largest tech merger in history. Whatever it decides this time could also set records.
A group of female record executives is calling for the resignation of Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, who sparked a backlash by saying after Sunday's Grammy Awards that female musicians must "step up" for more representation, per the Hollywood Reporter's Patrick Shanley.
