made. they make about $12.83 an hour, more than the retail average. if that were a full-time job, it would still be only $26,000 a year. that s what the headlines have been. walmart saying, look we promote people, and we re doing 30,000 promotion, right now. i wonder if he talked about how much of a promotion in terms of wage promotions. and also this issue, this fight that walmart has been in the middle of, because it s the biggest single employee in this country, employing 1.4 million people here of a living wage, quote/unquote, living wage versus minimum wage or pay a lot of the workers there are getting. walmart pays more than the minimum wage, more than $12 an hour even. but there are a lot of people who say that s simply, that s not enough. you can t live in this country. you can t send a kid to college on some of these jobs. quite frankly, these are not the kind jobs that are earning the salaries we had a generation ago when people made much more than that working in factori
at least for now. wall street waiting until we get a statement from the federal reserve. that will presumably move the markets as well. walmart today said it s planning to promote thousands of workers ahead of the holiday rush. christine romans has the story in a conversation with the walmart s u.s. ceo. a company criticized for low pay trying to change the story line. walmart announcing at least 25,000 new promotions, higher pay, and more responsibility, bringing the year s promotions to 160,000 sales associates. we hear from them often. they ask us to stand up for them because they are good jobs. it s a chance for them to start and a chance for them to progress. a rare interview with the walmart ceo bill simon, who employs some 1.4 million people. walmart pays on average $12.83 an hour. that s slightly higher than the retail industry standard and above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. but walmart s critics say it is
can take some of the blame but not all. reporter: isaac still dumping some heavy rains along the gulf coast region. many refineries are still shut down right now. some of them are operating at reduced rates. but about 1.3 barrels, i should say million barrels of refining capacity, have been affected by this storm. that is what is driving up as prices at the pump. in fact, aaa reporting that national average jumped another 2 cents of $22.83 is a national average. that is up 30 cents from just one month ago. those that are seeing the biggest jump in prices are louisiana, mississippi, and all the way up north, unsuspecting drivers in illinois and indiana have seen some of the biggest price spikes. there may not be much relief in sight. analysts are expecting the prices will continue to rise, even further as the damage of the storm is assessed and as we
all-time lows. freddie mac saying the rate for a 30-year mortgage is at 3.53%. while the rate for a 15-year is at 2.83%. so is now the right time to switch up your mortgage and how much will you really save? joining us from nashville, tennessee, is personal finance expert dave ramsey. good morning, to dave. good morning, how are you? anna: fantastic. you say that there s a huge difference between this 15 and 30 year mortgage and you say always go with the shorter. always go with the 15 year fix. the difference monthly is almost nothing and obviously we just saw the screen there that the 15-year is even cheaper and if you ll pay 1% right now as a point, you can get down to like 2.75. this is unheard of since the early 1960s. anna: and you re giving me some numbers here that you provided us with the cost of $683 more a month is going to translate to five years will
the average one month ago was $3.84. this time a year ago, the national average was $2.83. with gas prices so high, the allure of the electric car is steadily growing. right now, the two main contenders among the first mass market commercially available electric cars are the chevy volt and the nissan leaf. how is the transition going? i m joined by a science reporter for usa today. good morning, elizabeth. good morning. are you right as electric cars become more popular we ll have to start thinking of them as cell phones and less like hungry children. what do you mean by that? well, you know, you have to think, 10 years ago or 15 years ago a phone was something that was plugged into the wall, you walked up to it, picked it up and talked into it. now a phone is something you carry with you. now, you have to plug it in or when you pick it up in the morning it won t work.