How biased are hiring decisions? on August 14, 2017Unconscious bias is the invisible enemy of workplace diversity. So goes the conventional wisdom. Unconscious bias explains why the higher echelons of government and business are still so pale and male. It explains why women are still so woefully shortchanged in STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). It explains why we need to move […]
Minimum wages: the small-town view on August 7, 2017In the summer, I live near a pretty little village in rural Ontario. The quaint main street is lined with little shops and restaurants, a bakery and a terrific place that sells locally sourced food. There’s even a bookstore. All these places are labours of love for the proprietors. Most of them are marginal businesses […]
Is Seattle’s minimum-wage debacle coming to Ontario? on July 10, 2017Everybody loves Seattle. It’s among the nicest, most progressive places on the planet. Three years ago, Seattle announced a bold new plan to hike the minimum wage from $9.47 (U.S.) an hour all the way to $15. The move was widely applauded. Since then, the “Fight for $15” movement has caught on. Ontario, Alberta, California […]
What makes Snapchat worth $30 billion? on March 13, 2017Last week, a 26-year-old Stanford dropout named Evan Spiegel became richer than Donald Trump and twice as rich as Oprah. Thanks to the spectacular public debut of Snap, the company he co-founded, he’s now worth around $6-billion (U.S.). And Snap – whose market value is now around $30-billion – is, for now, the hottest stock […]