| Good afternoon! We all know that guy at work: The one sitting next to you, sneezing all over his keyboard, or the one sitting across from you, coughing in your direction. (Or maybe you've been that person.) Two words: Go. Home. You're no hero for soldiering through—on the contrary, you're a hazard to everyone sitting around you. Yes, many slog to work when they have no business being there because of financial pressures; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly a third of workers have no access to paid sick leave. But the other two-thirds, who have the luxury of taking a sick day, need to stop making excuses for showing up sick. Consider this your heads-up as the seasons change and you find yourself waking up with a scratchy throat. —Megan Hess |
| | Pay Up | | | Apple was ordered to repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest after the European Commission said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone maker's tax bill between 2003 and 2014. The world's richest company benefited from selective tax treatment that gave it an unfair advantage over other businesses, the EU regulator said Tuesday. It's the largest tax penalty in a three-year campaign against corporate tax avoidance. Apple and Ireland both vowed to fight the decision in the EU courts, and Ireland doesn't want the money back. |
| Here are today's top stories... | | Don't come to work if you're sick. Seriously. You're not a hero for soldiering through: you're an inconsiderate work hazard. When people bring their infectious illness to work, it spreads—and when sick people don't have a financial incentive to show up to work, fewer people get sick, according to a new working paper by the nonprofit National Bureau of Economic Research. The cities that adopted paid sick-leave mandates between 2003 and 2015 saw flu cases drop by about 5 percent after their laws took effect. (For a city of 100,000 people, that comes out to 100 fewer infections per week, the researchers estimate.) | | United's leadership revamp is complete. Earlier this year, United agreed to change its board makeup following pressure from activist investors. The hiring of Scott Kirby as president—from the same position at American Airlines—is the latest sign of the company's bench building. The surprise pick wasn't the only reason United made headlines this week: Police in Scotland arrested two United pilots on suspicion of being drunk before their 9 a.m. flight to Newark on Saturday. (Good news: inebriated pilots are the exception, not the rule.) | | Sonos, meet Amazon Echo. Echo, meet Sonos. Sonos unveiled a system developed with Amazon that will let you ask the Echo to play music on your Sonos speakers. Once the two systems are linked, it basically replaces the Echo's speakers with Sonos's own devices for any music apps. A test version will be available to some later this year, with a full-scale release planned for 2017. The VP of software at Sonos described the deal as a "long-term strategic partnership." Here's a look at how the two systems learned to talk to each other. | | With AI like this, who needs friends? Starwood's tech-centric hotel brand, Aloft, unveiled its top-secret "Project Jetson" last week. Now, for the first time, hotel guests can talk to their rooms, thanks to the help of Apple's ubiquitous voice-powered assistant, Siri. (Think: "Siri, turn up the temperature to 68 degrees," or, "Siri, turn off the bathroom light.") | | Workers across America are getting a raise. The median U.S. worker benefited from a 3.4 percent year-on-year increase in wages in July, only marginally lower than the 3.6 percent the previous month, which was the fastest pace of wage growth since January 2009, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's wage growth tracker. | |
| | Think Before You Ink | | | The body art industry is growing about 9 percent a year, a rate research company IBISWorld projects will make it a $1.1 billion business by 2020. And with it, the FDA's concern is growing. In the U.S., the inks are regulated as cosmetic products. The FDA can screen inks before they hit the market but has rarely done so, according to its website, because of "competing public-health priorities and a previous lack of evidence of safety problems specifically associated with these pigments." | | |
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Keep a civil tongue.