The wage increase will take place in two stages. First, it will be increased from €12.82 per hour to €13.90 at the beginning of 2026. It will then increase again by €0.70 a year later. This means German workers would typically earn close to €2,500, making it the second-highest minimum wage in the European Union after Luxembourg, which mandates a monthly minimum of €2,638.
The world’s most populous city plans to make daycare free for all preschool children starting in September, the city governor has announced. The move aims to reduce the financial burden on families by expanding a policy of free daycare for second-born and subsequent children to first-borns as well. While many developed countries are struggling with low birth rates, the problem is particularly acute in Japan where the population has been declining for years.
Families making under $100,000 will not have to pay housing, dining or other fees, and they’ll have an allowance for books and other personal expenses. Families who make Families of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) making under $100,000 will not have to pay housing, dining, or other fees, and they’ll have an allowance for books and other personal expenses. Families who make more than $200,000 a year can still receive need-based financial aid. Tuition for the 2024-2025 academic year at MIT is nearly $62,000. Housing, dining, and other fees can add up to another $24,000 annually, making it an enormous burden for families or forcing students to go into decades of debt.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that his government plans to cut student loans for around three million Australians by 20%, wiping off around $10 billion USD in debts. The move builds on May’s budget, which attacked cost of living pressures in Australia and gave debt relief for students, as well as more investment to make medicines cheaper, and a boost to a rent assistance program. The changes would mean the average graduate with a loan of A$27,600 would have A$5,520 wiped, the government said, adding that they would take effect from June 1, 2025.
The Biden-Harris administration has announced a new requirement for insurance providers to cover injectable PrEP in their policies without a co-payment for consumers. The new rule, built on previous guidance for the Affordable Care Act, also applies to increased choice in contraception. The Biden-Harris administration announced Monday a new requirement for insurance providers to cover injectable PrEP in their policies without a co-payment for consumers. PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, was first approved by the FDA in 2012 to prevent people exposed to HIV from becoming infected with the virus. Truvada in pill form was the first prescriptive PrEP to hit the market, followed by Descovy. The injectable PrEP Apretude was approved in 2021.
The Biden administration has forgiven another $4.5 billion in student debt for more than 60,000 borrowers. The latest round of relief is a result of the U.S. Department of Education’s fixes to the popular, but once-troubled, Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. President Biden, who has forgiven more education debt than any other president in U.S history, said that the number of borrowers to benefit from the program under his administration now exceeded 1 million.
Medical insurance company Aetna just announced that it’s going to be providing additional fertility coverage, specifically offering intrauterine insemination (IUI), to all policyholders regardless of sexual orientation or whether they’re partnered. This comes after a settlement agreement from a lawsuit earlier this year which stated that Aetna has to provide such care for LGBTQ+ people. The case, Goidel et al. v. Aetna, was filed in September 2021 and only came to a resolution in May after years of waiting and legal battles.
Master Services Council, which represents 14,000 Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Downtown Disney employees from four unions, announced its members had voted to accept a new contract that provides a 31% pay raise over the next three years.
The “biggest wage increases ever” for Disneyland resort employees will raise hourly pay more than $6 over three years from the current $19.90 to $24 in 2024 and $26 in 2026, according to the unions.
President Joe Biden announced another round of student loan debt forgiveness, totaling $1.2 billion for 35,000 public-sector workers including teachers, nurses, and firefighters. The administration has now canceled more federal student loan debt than any prior administration – now totaling more than $168 billion for nearly 4.8 million Americans.
Last year, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) launched a series of initiatives aimed at pursuing high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay their tax debts. The IRS says the campaign is focused on taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.
