It’s a Van! It’s a Transit Connect! It’s a Diesel!Ford continues the trend of bringing diesel to a few of its vehicle platform. For 2019, Ford has given its smallest van, the Transit Connect, a facelift. It consists of a revised front fascia and an updated dashboard. But the most interesting update is more than skin deep. Under the new hood you’ll be able to get two new engines, one powered by gasoline, or, for the first time in the U.S., one powered by diesel.
With employers facing a talent crunch and many companies competing for the top talent, American workers are in a good position to negotiate for a raise — and yet most choose not to.
According to a study conducted by staffing firm Robert Half, just 39 percent of workers negotiated their salary during their last job offer. Robert Half surveyed more than 2,700 workers across 27 major U.S. cities and found that some people were more likely to negotiate than others.
Forty-six percent of men reported having negotiated for a higher salary but just 34 percent of women did. This difference could be one factor that is fueling the gender pay gap .
Age also played a factor in determining a worker’s likelihood of entering salary negotiations. About 45 percent of workers between the ages of 18 and 34, 40 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 54 and just 30 percent of those over 55 negotiated.
By not negotiating for more money, workers could be missing out on some serious cash. “The average U.S. employee could be earning $7,528, or 13.3 percent, more per year than his or her current annual base salary,” estimates Glassdoor . “Many Americans could be earning more by becoming more informed about their market value.”
Choosing not to negotiate can also hurt you in the long run says Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half. “Failing to negotiate can damage earning potential over the long term since raises and bonuses are often a percentage of base salary,” he tells CNBC Make It . “It’s more important than ever for both parties to research market conditions thoroughly to pave the way for realistic, productive discussions.”
“Be smart and do your research,” says bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch . “Find the job’s likely salary, and know what your skills are likely worth in the open market.”
If you do decide to negotiate for a higher salary, McDonald warns job seekers about two common pitfalls. “First and foremost, avoid negotiating any part of the compensation package until after you’ve received a formal offer,” he says. “Second, don’t go into a negotiation without practicing the conversation in person with a trusted friend or mentor. Someone who has been in your position can help you prepare for the unexpected and make a stronger case.”
Get ready to hear a lot more about 5G.
Slowly but surely, we’re moving closer and closer to the super-connected, ultra-fast, 5G world tech companies have been promising us for years.
Here’s what you need to know about the state of 5G right now.
Okay, it sounds obvious, but it’s important to understand just how much faster 5G is compared to current 4G LTE speeds. 5G will not only be many, many times faster than your existing LTE connection, it will be significantly faster than the broadband connection you have at home.
To put that in perspective, the fastest 4G download speeds in the U.S. top out at an average of 19.42 Mbps, according to OpenSignal. 5G, by comparison, promises gigabit speeds.
Qualcomm’s first 5G modem, the Snapdragon X50, supports speeds up to 5 gigabits per second. That’s more than 257 times faster than the average speed of the fastest LTE network in the United States.
Most of us have never experienced anything close to speeds that fast—even Google Fiber tops out at 1 Gbps. And we’re only talking about the first generation of 5G modems. Future chips will likely be even faster.
It’s not all about speed though. Yes, 5G networks will bring blazing fast data connections, but they also enable much more than that.
Part of the appeal of 5G is that it also brings much higher capacity to mobile networks, meaning that networks will be able to support many more data connections than what was previously possible. Have you ever been to a large event where your data connection slowed down or stopped working? That’s because 4G networks can only support so many devices before being overloaded.
But 5G networks have a much higher capacity. They’re required to be able to support up to a million devices per square kilometer, according to the International Telecommunications Union’s standards.
In addition, 5G is a huge upgrade over 4G when it comes to latency, or the amount of time it takes for data to be transmitted. Because 5G networks support extremely low-latency connections, devices will be able to communicate much faster than previously possible.
Which brings us to…
Put all this together and you begin to understand why 5G is such a big deal — and not just for the smartphone industry. It has huge implications for just about every connected device.
The technology will be essential for self-driving cars, which will need to be able to communicate with the world around them as quickly as possible. Lower latency and higher capacity means that cars will actually be able to communicate with their surrounding environment fast enough to enable them to actually be fully autonomous.
Consumer tech like wearables, virtual reality headsets, PCs, and smart home devices will all dramatically improve as well, thanks to 5G. Even day-to-day tasks like checking social media or initiating a video call could drastically change.
The downside of all this, at least initially, will be all that extra speed is likely to come at a higher cost. Sprint’s CEO said just last week he expects to jack up the price of unlimited data plans by as much as $20 to $30 for 5G.
Other carriers haven’t commented on specific pricing yet, but, as others have pointed out, data costs have historically climbed as network speeds increase and there’s little reason to think that trend won’t continue for the foreseeable future.
It’s not all bad news, though. Companies like Qualcomm say they’re optimistic data prices will come down in the long run due to the sheer number of new devices that will be coming online once 5G starts to roll out. But it’s impossible to say how long that transition could take
Though we’ve seen a lot of positive progress just in the last year, we still have a long way to go before 5G is anywhere near as pervasive as 4G is right now. Carriers and hardware companies are only just beginning to make commitments for 2019.
But most in the industry agree that 2020 is the earliest 5G will even begin to touch most consumers. And even then, early 5G networks could come with their fair share of growing pains — like inconsistent coverage or negative effects on battery life.
VANCOUVER — British Columbia has announced $20 million in funding over three years for Indigenous communities struggling with an overdose death rate that’s three times higher than the general population.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy said the money is part of $322 million announced in last September’s budget update and will be administered by the First Nations Health Authority.
Indigenous people are also five times more likely to experience a non-fatal overdose as the province experiences one of its worst public health emergencies, Darcy said Thursday at a news conference following a wellness summit hosted by the health ministry.
“While amongst British Columbians in general who are dying of overdose, 80 per cent of them are men, in the case of Indigenous people half of them are men so that says something very powerful about Indigenous women and the particular risk they are at,” Darcy said.
Dr. Shannon McDonald, the health authority’s chief medical health officer, said 55 projects have been approved with the funding to provide a range of supports including expanded access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, more treatment options for people struggling with addiction in remote communities through telehealth, and “back-to-the-land” therapeutic camps.
The health authority said an open call for project grants issued last December resulted in 183 applications.
Many of the addiction issues among Indigenous people on and off reserves are rooted in trauma, and diverse solutions are needed to help those who use illicit drugs in their pre-teens and into their 70s, McDonald said.
“We have a pain problem, not a drug problem,” she said, adding families are grieving loved ones who died from “a poisoned drug supply.”
“I’d also like to acknowledge the families who are waiting, the families who are watching the people they love struggle, who live in fear for the night they get the call or the knock on the door. I want to acknowledge the fact that we need to support those people through everything we do.”
McDonald said the health authority is working to analyze more data following the results of its first analysis last summer, which showed the overdose rates among Indigenous people were higher than the rest of the population.
The BC Coroners Service has reported that 1,422 people fatally overdosed across B.C. last year.
“The recent announcements by the coroners service do not give me hope that we’ve seen the kind of positive change in this situation for the First Nations and aboriginal population in the province that we might have hoped to see,” McDonald said.
Many First Nations people overdose away from home, she said.
“For whatever reason they are choosing to use their substance of choice away from the judgmental and shameful eyes of the people they love, where they might have gotten support.”
Data from the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council has provided the health authority with some understanding of the issue from drug users’ point of view, McDonald said.
“They talk quite clearly about trauma in their lives and racism as barriers to them accessing treatment. We need to change that.”
McDonald said naloxone training has been provided in 126 communities and that will increase to 203 communities.
Peer support is also an important component for those at risk of overdose, and the funding will help provide more programs to make that happen, she said.
“We want to support peers in the importance of their voices, the people who have a history of using, who know that story better than anybody else, who can relate to what people are going through and who can share the things that brought them to wellness.”
