Labor & Employment

Washington, D.C. -- President Obama in his State of the Union address last night said he plans to sign an executive order increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour for workers on new government contracts and asked Congress to approve the same increase for all workers — and the National Retail Federation is not happy.

NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay issued a response ahead of the president’s address.

Fremont, Calif. -- The Men's Wearhouse has sent a letter to the independent directors of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc. urging them to consider Men's Wearhouse's recent all-cash offer to acquire Jos. A. Bank for $57.50 per share, or about $1.6 billion. Jos. A. Bank initially rejected the offer, which expires March 28, 2014, on Jan. 20.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores has promoted Tony Carosello to VP, real estate. Carosello, previously director of real estate operations for the company, will report to Jim Kerr, EVP, CFO.

Vancouver, Canada -- As part of a restructuring Best Buy Canada will be consolidating sales departments and reducing management layers in Future Shop and Best Buy stores, resulting in the layoff of about 950 full-time employees across both Future Shop and Best Buy brands. All store employees were notified individually about these changes and those impacted were provided with severance packages.

Toronto – Sears Canada, which laid off more than 1,300 employees on Jan. 15, is cutting an additional 624 jobs. In a press release, the retailer said it is modifying its store structure to improve efficiency and increase the effectiveness of the chain of communication between management and the store associate teams within the stores.

Walmart Supercenters in California benefit communities by supporting additional job creation, small business growth and more robust sales tax revenues, according to a new economic impact report.

The study was conducted by economist Lon Hatamiya of the Hatamiya Group and the results were announced by Walmart, which is sure to cause opponents of the company to question the validity of the results. That said, key findings of the study show the following:

Sacramento, Calif. – Wal-Mart supercenters in California benefit communities by supporting additional job creation, small business growth and more robust sales tax revenues. According to a new economic impact report conducted by economist Lon Hatamiya of the Hatamiya Group, on average, California communities with Wal-Mart supercenters fared far better on taxable retail sales than those communities without Wal-Mart supercenters.
 

Two of Staples' senior most executives were given new responsibilities to bolster the company’s re-invention efforts and competitive posture in a market that has become more challenging with the addition of a newly merged Office Depot and OfficeMax.