General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
SILVER SPRING, Md. — Wages and benefits for U.S. workers rose in the last quarter of the year, putting all of 2020 in somewhat of a normal range as the pandemic continued to rankle the economy.
Total U.S. workers compensation rose 0.7% in the October-December quarter, an increase over the previous two quarters, the Labor Department said Friday. Growth was 0.5% in the second and third quarters, down from 0.8% in the first three months of the year.
For the year, wages and benefits grew 2.5%, with wages and salaries up 2.6% and benefits, which include Social Security, grew 2.3%.
Wages and salaries grew 0.9% in the final quarter of 2020 while benefits rose 0.6%.
The data comes from the Labor Department's Employment Cost Index, which measures pay changes for workers that keep their jobs. The data isn't affected by the mass layoffs in the spring.
While employers are limiting increases in compensation, most are reluctant to cut pay outright. Companies generally avoid slashing pay because it can demoralize workers and send them looking for new jobs.
Economists say moderate gains in wages and salaries, which make up 70% of employment costs, are generally not threatening to trigger inflationary pressure.
The job market has stumbled this winter as colder weather and the raging pandemic have discouraged Americans from dining out, traveling, or going out to bars or movie theaters. Employers shed jobs in December for the first time in six months, and the unemployment rate was stuck at 6.7% for the second consecutive month. The economy still has 9.8 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic, more than were lost in the 2008-2009 recession.
Even though the gains were modest, they still outpaced 2020 inflation of 1.4%, which is well below the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Analysts believe inflation will remain subdued as the U.S. economy struggles to break out of a pandemic-induced downturn.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S.
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture presents a captivating evening with acclaimed singer-songwriter Alkinoos Ioannidis, who will perform at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on Saturday, April 27, 7:30 PM, in a solo concert.
ATHENS - The "OLYMPOS - Global Spiritual Center" Association presents on Saturday, April 6, at 6:00 pm, at the "Antonis Tritsis" Amphitheatre of the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens, 50, Acadimias Street, the truly ingenious funding proposal for the construction of Heptapolis in the wider area of Delphi, entitled "World Green Taxation Fund".
ATHENS - Disregarding the recommendation of a prosecutor who said there wasn’t enough evidence, an Athens Mixed Jury Court found a 55-year-old man guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl but found her mother innocent of pornography.