Blog Posts by Lisa Scherzer

Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, sparked a heap of controversy on July 16 when he told the Baptist Press that the Atlanta-based privately owned chain of fast-food restaurants is "very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit."

The Cathy family, whose 1,600 stores are closed on Sunday as a testament to the founder's "faith in God," is known for being deeply involved in Christian philanthropic work. Now, the family and the chain are known as being at the center of a rancorous debate about gay rights and equality in America.

Should Cathy and his family worry that liberal-minded customers will change their buying habits significantly based on the company's gay marriage stand -- enough to put a noticeable dent in Chick-fil-A's revenue numbers?

The short answer: probably not. The chain, which is 100%-owned by the Cathy family, is doing just fine financially. PrivCo, a provider of financial data on non-public companies, values the firm at $4.5

The U.S. workforce today is older and better-educated than it was in the 1970s. In 2010 more than a third (34%) of workers had a four-year college degree compared with one-fifth (19%) of workers in 1979.

Logic might dictate that better-educated workers would generally be compensated with higher pay and superior benefits, and that the share of good jobs in the economy would have increased in line with a higher-quality labor force.

But sadly, that's not the case, according to a paper out today from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank. In fact, the report found, the economy isn't generating as many of these so-called good jobs (more on those below) as it did 30 years ago.

What's Considered a Good Job?

How do you define a good job? The authors, John Schmitt, a senior economist at CEPR, and Janelle Jones, a research assistant, base it on three factors: earnings, health insurance and retirement. (The authors use the Census Bureau's Current Population

Want a job at McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, or Oliver Wyman? Prepare to go through the mental wringer. These top-notch management consulting firms put up some of the highest barriers to entry through intellectually demanding interviews, according to the latest Glassdoor.com survey, Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview.

The top honor for the toughest interview process went to McKinsey & Company, with an interview difficulty rating of 3.9. It was followed by Boston Consulting Company (3.8) and Oliver Wyman (3.7). Bain & Company of Mitt Romney fame placed seventh with a 3.6 difficulty rating. (To come up with the list, Glassdoor sifted through more than 80,000 interview ratings and reviews shared throughout the past year.)

Here's a sample brainteaser: How many people would use a drug that prevents baldness? That's not a question most people have thought of, or could even consider answering correctly — unless they just invented a baldness cure you're ready to patent.

Some of

In April Donny Salazar, vice president of customer experience at Gilt Groupe in New York, took three weeks off to travel through Southeast Asia. He got massages every day on the beach at Ko Phi Phi in southern Thailand, went on a cruise through Halong Bay in Vietnam, and saw the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City.

The trip was a combined two-week sabbatical — which every salaried Gilt employee is entitled to after three years of continuous service — and an unlimited vacation time policy. "I really took advantage of recharging," says Salazar, 32, pictured below, who timed the trip to coincide with a promotion and transition to a different department within the company.

Unlimited vacation days. It sounds like the holy grail of perks, the work equivalent of a $7.95 all-you-can-eat buffet: Take as many days off as you want, whenever you want to take them, as long as you get your work done.

A number of companies, particularly the Silicon Valley, start-up kind, are moving away from the traditional

At the height of the housing boom in the early 2000s, it was natural for homeowners to feel wealthier than they were. Inflated property values translated into a so-called wealth effect: Confident the value of their homes would climb ever higher and bolstered by the cash obtained by easy refinancing, owners spent freely.

A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research looks into what role this housing wealth — a household's overall finances — played in homeowners' decision-making when it comes to sending their children to college.

The study -- "The Effect of Housing Wealth on College Choice: Evidence From the Housing Boom" and co-authored by Professors Michael Lovenheim and C. Lockwood Reynolds --  found homeowners that experienced a windfall from the housing boom were more likely to send their children to college, to send them to four-year public institutions instead of two-year institutions and to send them to state "flagship" institutions — which are better

Planning a Father's Day barbeque this Sunday?

Throwing a few steaks and burgers on the grill, you might have noticed, has gotten more expensive as the cost of beef has climbed over the past year. And it's only going higher, say economists.

The average retail price of beef from January through April this year is 7.7% higher than the same period a year ago, according to the USDA's Economic Research Service data, while it's remained steady over the past few months, says John Michael Riley, an assistant professor in Mississippi State University's department of agricultural economics. And the average price in 2011 was 9.8% higher than in 2010.

Higher Prices Will Continue

Shoppers are going to continue to see higher prices at the meat counter — and not just for beef. Chris Hurt, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, says he expects the average price of beef to rise to about $5.30 a pound next year. So far this year through May, retail prices have averaged $5.03 a pound

Last year Bank of America (BAC) planned to charge its debit-card users a monthly $5 fee as other big banks, including Wells Fargo (WFC) and JP Morgan Chase (JPM), followed suit with similar revenue-raising strategies. The fees outraged customers and helped fuel the Occupy Wall Street movement; before long the banks scrapped their plans.

When nearly every financial transaction brings another expense with it — ATM fees, airline baggage fees, credit card late-payment fees, foreign currency exchange fees, hotel fees, etc. —  this was considered a small victory for the little guy.

But when it comes to expenses in our retirement accounts — namely, 401(k) plans — we're clueless. For example, a study published by AARP in February found that "71% are not aware that they pay fees to their 401(k) plan provider to maintain their account."

And it's not just us. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that even plan sponsors — employers — aren't as clued into the fees

Attention college students applying to law school: put down the LSAT prep book. You might want to consider another line of work.

In what could be either a sign of the economic times or simply an extreme case, a law firm in Boston posted a position on Boston College Law School's career site for an associate position with a less-than-generous salary of $10,000.

The job is for a full-time associate at Gilbert & O'Bryan LLP, a Boston law firm specializing in domestic relations, estate planning, bankruptcy and civil service law. The Boston Business Journal got a tip from a currently employed Boston College Law School graduate who spotted the posting and said the ad was "demoralizing." (Here's their screen shot of the post.)

Compensation for the full-time associate position — suited for a new lawyer or "someone returning to a legal career" — is based mainly on a "percentage of work billed and collected," which means a percentage of what's billed to the firm's clients. (Larry O'Bryan, partner