Finance Factors meal to fund entrepreneurs
The annual Finance Factors Charity Breakfast this year will support Pacific Gateway Center’s Culinary Kitchen Incubator.
Employees will cook and serve plates from 6:30 to 9 a.m. July 11, and proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit, which is designed to help local entrepreneurs operate a business in the food service industry.
"Finance Factors is committed to giving back to the communities we serve, and selecting Pacific Gateway Center as the beneficiary of this year’s Charity Breakfast really hits home for us," said President Steven Teruya in a statement.
"This gift from Finance Factors will have a tremendous impact on Pacific Gateway Center, allowing us to further empower and guide our clients towards self-reliant and productive lives," said Tin Myaing Thein, executive director of Pacific Gateway Center.
This event will be Finance Factors’ 19th annual breakfast. Since its inception the fundraiser has raised more than $96,000 for local nonprofit organizations.
Unemployment rates below 6% in 25 states
WASHINGTON » Unemployment rates fell in nearly all 50 states last month, and half the states now have rates below 6 percent. The figures are a sign of widespread, if slow, improvement in the nation’s job market. Unemployment rates fell in 43 states in April, the Labor Department said Friday, rose in two states and were unchanged in five.
Hawaii’s jobless rate fell to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent the previous month, the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported Thursday.
Hiring nationwide is also picking up as well. Employers added jobs in 39 states, including Hawaii, while 10 states posted job losses. Nebraska reported no change.
Twenty-five states now have unemployment rates of 5.9 percent or lower.
The Federal Reserve considers "full employment" to be between 5.2 and 5.6 percent. Rates at that level are considered "full employment" because if they fell lower, inflation could rise.
U.S. home building up 13.2 percent in April
WASHINGTON » U.S. home construction surged in April to its highest pace in five months with almost all of the gains coming from the volatile apartment sector, a sign that Americans are still struggling to buy single-family homes.
The Commerce Department said Friday that builders started work on 1.07 million homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in April, up 13.2 percent from March.
The gains were driven by a 42.9 percent jump in the construction of apartments and condominiums. The rate of building single-family homes rose just 0.8 percent.
The gains for apartment building point to an economy where more Americans rent instead of purchasing a home.
Ex-Anheuser VP loses discrimination suit
ST. LOUIS » Anheuser-Busch did not discriminate against a former executive by paying her significantly less than a male predecessor, a jury in St. Louis decided Friday.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days before siding with the company, a onetime family business now owned by Belgium-based brewer InBev.
Counting bonuses and stock options, Francine Katz earned about $1 million annually after her 2002 promotion to vice president of communications and consumer affairs and appointment to the company’s strategy committee.
But Katz’s base salary was half that of John Jacob, a former National Urban League president and Anheuser-Busch board member.
The company argued that Katz’s salary, benefits and bonuses compared favorably to those in similar positions at other large U.S. corporations and that Jacob had more responsibilities.
Katz sued Anheuser-Busch in 2009, after she left following its sale to InBev.
Her attorney said she was entitled to at least $9.4 million in back pay from 2002 to 2008, plus another nearly $5 million in interest and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.
In 2008, her final year with the company, Katz reported more than $14 million in income on her federal tax returns, including stock options cashed in.
ON THE MOVE
Bank of Hawaii has promoted:
» Rodolfo "Rudy" Alvior to vice president from assistant vice president in retail delivery channel compliance. Alvior joined the bank in 2000 as an internal auditor and later became a compliance officer in the branch division.
» Wanda Ann Fisher to vice president from assistant vice president in the training and support center. Fisher joined the bank in 1978 and has held such positions as teller, operations team leader, systems consultant, operations and support specialist, and training manager.
» Jon Fujimoto to vice president from assistant vice president of the Maui Commercial Banking Center. Fujimoto joined Bank of Hawaii in 2007 as a consumer banking representative.
