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Amazon Spends $1 Billion to Increase Pay and Lower Health Care Costs for US Workers

William Attardi on September 19, 2025

Amazon has a global workforce of 1.5 million workers. The Seattle-based company said the average pay is increasing to more than $23 per hour. Amazon also said it will lower the cost of its entry health care plan to $5 per week and $5 for co-pays, starting next year. In January 2024, Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, said that average wages for hourly workers would exceed $18, up from $17.50.  At Minneapolis-based Target, the starting hourly wage ranges from $15 to $24 for workers employed at stores and distribution centers. Amazon spends $1 billion to increase pay and lower health care costs for US workers | AP News

These AI-Skilled 20-Somethings Are Making Hundreds of Thousands a Year

William Attardi on August 28, 2025

It’s a tough time to be a young person looking for a job—unless you’re in artificial intelligence. While AI is part of the reason for the doldrums, there is a bright spot when it comes to workers with actual experience in machine learning. They’re in their early 20s, they have AI know-how, and a bunch of them are making $1 million a year.  Base salaries for nonmanagerial workers in AI with zero to three years experience grew by around 12% from 2024 to 2025, the largest gain of any experience group, according to a new report by the AI staffing firm Burtch Works, which analyzed the compensation of thousands of AI and data-science candidates. The report also found that people with AI experience are being promoted to management roles roughly twice as fast as their counterparts in other technology fields. They’re jumping the ladder as a result of their skills and impact instead of their years on the job. These AI-Skilled 20-Somethings Are Making Hundreds of Thousands a Year – WSJ

The Genesis of the U.S. Space Force – On December 20, 2019, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, officially creating the United States Space Force, a new and independent branch of the U.S. military. The establishment of the Space Force marked a historic shift in how the U.S. views and manages its military operations in space, reflecting the growing importance of space as both a domain of strategic competition and national security. The Space Force is tasked with ensuring the U.S. maintains its superiority in space, focusing on both the defense of space assets and the development of offensive capabilities. Its mission includes:

  1. Space Operations: Overseeing space-based systems, such as satellites, that provide essential services to the U.S. military, including communication, reconnaissance, and missile defense.
  2. Space Security: Protecting U.S. space infrastructure from threats, including anti-satellite weapons, cyberattacks, and other potential forms of disruption by adversarial nations.
  3. Space Research and Development: Developing and deploying cutting-edge space technologies, including space-based defense systems, that ensure the U.S. maintains an edge in space exploration and military operations.
  4. Supporting National Defense: Integrating space capabilities into broader national defense strategies, ensuring that U.S. forces can operate effectively in space as part of a multi-domain approach to warfare.

The Space Force is designed to streamline and strengthen the U.S. military’s space operations, which were previously under the purview of the U.S. Air Force. By separating space operations into a distinct branch, the government hoped to increase focus on space as a critical area of national defense and enhance the U.S. military’s ability to respond to emerging threats. Source: Day in History