Category: Money

TheStreet 

Here’s everything we know about the main dining room (MDR) changes the two major family-friendly cruise lines are making (you’re not going to like them).

Royal Caribbean (RCL) – Get Free Report and Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) – Get Free Report have made food a central part of the cruising experience. In many ways, dinner in the main dining room (MDR) serves as the anchor of your cruise experience.

No matter what you did during the day, whether you spent it as a family, with friends, or by yourself, dinner brings everyone together. For passengers on both cruise lines, the meal isn’t quite as formal as it once was. Some people dress for dinner, others opt for more casual clothes, but the dining experience remains pretty traditional.

Once you sit down, multiple waiters take care of you through a meal that includes soup, salad, appetizers, main courses, and dessert. It’s all served at a leisurely pace with the option to add items to your order as you go.

Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival offer menus that change each night while also having a section of items that are always available. In addition, the two cruise lines have generally been all-you-can-eat, allowing customers to have as many entrees as they want.

In the new year, both cruise lines plan different changes to some of those longstanding MDR policies.

Getty Images/TheStreet

Carnival Adds New Dining Limits

In November, Carnival sent an email to booked passengers telling them about changes to its dining options, attempting to explain the changes.

“We have all experienced the impact of inflation, higher fuel prices, and supply chain challenges; At Carnival, we have worked very hard to minimize the impact on our guests. We have reached a point with our food costs, however, where we must take some modest but specific actions, which we know most of you have done yourselves, whether with your dining out patterns or shopping to stock the refrigerator or pantry,” the cruise line shared.

That’s relatable to a point, but the cruise line is using the economy to change a long-standing policy.

Starting with sailings last November, the cruise line began charging $5 per entree after the first two. That means that passengers can still order multiple main courses, but for every entree after the second one, they will pay $5.

Royal Caribbean Makes an Even Bigger Change

While Carnival took a fairly modest step to control food costs, Royal Caribbean is making a pretty major change. After testing new menus toward the end of 2022 on Symphony of the Seas, the cruise line has decided to implement those changes fleetwide.

The cruise line will be slimming down its menus, giving each night a theme, and getting rid of the “classics,” which include chicken, New York strip steak, spaghetti bolognese, and appetizers like shrimp cocktail, escargot, and French onion soup.

This menu section served two purposes. It offered some very basic choices for cruise passengers not looking to try something new. That’s a major positive for passengers of teenagers too old for the kid’s menu, but who have not fully adopted adult tastes. 

In addition, the “classics” menu offered appetizers including shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, and escargot that many passengers enjoyed ordering every night of their cruise. The changes will make the MDR menus less expansive and while all the “classics” will be available on some nights, they will no longer be available every night,.

The cruise line has said that it’s making these changes, not for financial reasons, but to improve the speed of service. Royal Caribbean has not shared the new menus — they were still being worked on in December — but the changes are expected to begin being rolled out in January across the fleet. 

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TheStreet 

The billionaire has completely changed and shaped the role of CEO.

In 2021, Time Magazine voted Elon Musk Person of the Year. 

The choice was certainly daring but in view of the year that has just ended, it appears that the magazine may have been in the wrong year. 2022 belonged to Musk, the CEO or founder of at least five major companies: Tesla  (TSLA) – Get Free Report, SpaceX, Twitter, Neuralink and The Boring Company. 

No other person in the world has had as much influence as the billionaire last year. He has been at the center of everything: from politics to geopolitics to business. He has simply shaped the year, managing to find himself at the center of almost every conversation.

His influence kept growing. He has over 124 million followers on Twitter. Only former President Barack Obama, with 133.3 million followers, has more.

Some will say that Musk was everything that should not be done when you are a CEO  or when you have as much power as he does. Others will say that he heralded a new era for business leaders. The latter have become everything and can deploy their many facets without having to fear being fired. 

It’s the era of the Everything CEO. 

Controversies

The billionaire arouses strong passions. Fans and admirers are die-hard. They do not hesitate to attack the authors of articles that do not praise their hero. Critics turn into haters and send mean emails to journalists who write any article showing Musk in a positive light. Since former President Donald Trump no other public figure has sparked so much heated debate, controversy and media coverage.

Musk became the owner of Twitter, defined as the Town Square of our time, on October 27. The platform is the place where opinion makers and trendsetters meet. He spent a colossal sum of $44 billion to get his hands on this important tool in the communication of the powerful and the work of journalists. 

He embarked on a smashing revamp of Twitter 2.0. He fired nearly every top executive in a matter of hours in what appeared to be a purge. He eliminated half of the employees in one day, or 3,750 people, and managed to make more than a thousand more leave a few days later by giving them a tough choice: work long hours or quit.

Besides this exodus of talents, Musk has also done what few bosses will do: scare away advertisers, who accounted for 91% of social media revenue in the 2022 second quarter, by adopting a laissez-faire approach to content. He reactivated accounts banned by Twitter 1.0 for xenophobic or anti-transgender comments and got rid of the safeguards against misinformation linked to the pandemic.

His vision of free speech has also varied a lot, especially when it comes to criticism against him. Besides Twitter, all these events also affected Tesla because Musk now sees himself as the righter of the wrongs caused to conservatives by the progressives. This politicization of the billionaire, who called for voting Republican in the last midterm elections, had a significant impact on the Tesla brand.

Difficult to Sell Teslas to Democrats

“In the past year, we have seen Tesla’s brand lose equity across every brand value, from foundational safety to refinement,” said research-based consultancy firm Strategic Vision President, Alexander Edwards. “These problems are magnified in that battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are more often purchased by self-identified Democrats who have generally opposed Musk’s actions with Twitter. It will become more difficult to sell Tesla vehicles as the narrative of Twitter makes the vehicles seem less fun and alienates the primary buyer.”

Since Musk finalized the Twitter deal on Oct. 27, Tesla stock has lost 45.3 percent of its value, sparking outrage in the Tesla community. Individual investors have demanded that he be replaced as CEO, something never heard before.

To skeptics, the billionaire asks for time. He made the bet to transform Twitter into an everything app, that is to say a platform where it will be possible to carry out all the activities of daily life.

Musk has also had a significant influence on geopolitical affairs. He was one of the first major CEOs to break with neutrality after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The tech tycoon presented this war as one of autocracies against democracies. 

If he then made missteps, like his controversial plan to end the ongoing conflict that has already caused thousands of deaths, there is no doubt that by providing Starlink to Ukraine the billionaire was a game changer. 

Starlink is a secure and independent satellite internet access service developed by SpaceX, a rocket company founded by Musk. The service has become the unique communication system for the Ukrainian forces at the front lines. It also allows Ukrainians to bypass Russian propaganda and tell their daily life in war. 

Beyond Ukraine, Starlink has become a window of freedom for populations living under a dictatorship such as in Iran where protesters against the Ayatollahs’ regime demand the service.

Musk promised to change the world. He wants to extend it to Mars where he claims humans will be living soon. In 2022, he gave the world an idea of ​​the revolution he aspires to. 

The question is whether it will be well received.

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TheStreet 

The billionaire believes there is a simple way to decide whether to legalize a drug.

The new year is often conducive to personal resolutions. 

It is often a question of health but also of savings. In this period of economic uncertainty due to a possible recession on the horizon, it is not excluded that most of the resolutions for 2023 relate to the best way to preserve purchasing power.

Of course, you can expect the traditional resolutions such as playing the lotto, going back to the gym, working less, eating more balanced and healthy, stopping smoking, or reducing the use of your car.

On the side of the government, the question is often to know what will be the priority in the political agenda. Lobbies, associations and civil society take the opportunity to push for the adoption of laws on issues that are important to them. 

The debates on the legalization and decriminalization of drugs often come up. For a long time, these debates often focused on the decriminalization of cannabis at both the local and federal levels. But since marijuana is no longer illegal in many states, some are beginning to push the idea of ​​legalizing hard drugs like cocaine.

‘That Was Dumb’

We find this debate in particular on social networks. Elon Musk, who in 2022 became the most influential CEO in the world, did not hesitate to get involved. 

For the Techno King, as he’s known at Tesla, banning drugs is not completely a good thing for society. He takes the example of alcohol. He believes that banning alcohol was a “dumb” decision and that it contributed to the rise in crime in America.

It all started with a message from a Twitter user, a fan of Tesla, with whom Musk regularly exchanges on the platform. The account in question indicates in their message that 2023 is going to be “Wild”, with a link to an article from The Economist advocating for the decriminalization of cocaine. 

The article caused a sensation when it was published last October. The headline was very provocative: “Joe Biden is too timid: It is time to legalize cocaine. The costs of prohibition outweigh the benefits.”

“Banning alcohol caused the biggest rise in organized crime in American history,” Musk commented. “That was dumb. Same logic applies to other drugs. Alcohol is just a legacy drug.”

This comment pleased the Twitter user who saw it as a way for Musk to support the legalization of cocaine.

“We all doing lines at twitter hq if it happens?” the user said.

It was then that the CEO of Tesla  (TSLA) – Get Free Report and the founder of SpaceX made an important clarification.

“I am not endorsing drugs, but I am saying that the evidence suggests that banning them is a net societal negative,” Musk said.

‘Acid Test’

The billionaire insists that it is important to determine whether a drug is good or bad for society. To do this, he says, all you have to do is ask yourself if the drug in question makes you a better person once you’ve used it. He calls the tests, the “acid test.”

He adds that cocaine for him fails this test, meaning it is not in society’s interest to legalize it contrary to the Twitter user’s original post.

“To assess if a drug is good, whether legal or illegal, the acid test is being able to say: [blank] made me a better person,” Musk said. “Cocaine does not meet that test.”

Advocates of cocaine legalization want to ride the marijuana wave, especially after President Biden kept a campaign promise by announcing last October that he was pardoning all federal marijuana simple possession convictions.

They argue that former President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs, especially cocaine, has not really eliminated this problem. Global production hit a record of 1,982 tons in 2020, according to the latest data, cited by The Economist. 

These poor figures were reached in spite of the fact that the United States disbursed large financial means to reduce the supply. Between 2000 and 2020 the federal injected billions of dollars into Colombia to suppress production.

Cocaine was made illegal after studies concluded that it was a drug that caused seizures, heart failure, respiratory failure, cerebral hemorrhage, and strokes. It is also addictive. 

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TheStreet 

A new interpretation of the definition of free trade agreement is praised by the European Union and criticized by a prominent U.S. politician.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Aug. 16, 2022. The previous year it had already passed the House of Representatives.

After getting through the House, the bill would need to pass the Senate to get to Biden’s desk for the signature that would make it a law. But negotiations in the Senate faced some political challenges, most conspicuously finding a way the Democrats could agree unanimously on the specifics.

The Senate was divided 50-50 among Democrats and Republicans. No Republicans were going to vote for the bill. So the only way it would pass was for all 50 Democrats to vote for it and then for Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote as required by the U.S. Constitution.

First introduced as a $3.5 trillion bill, the Build Back Better Act, after spirited legislative maneuvering, was ultimately renamed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Its price tag was reduced to $737 billion, not nearly as costly but still an enormous spending bill. On Aug. 7, it passed the Senate 51 to 50, with Vice President Harris casting the tiebreaking vote.

Provisions of the law include Affordable Care Act subsidies, lowering prescription drug prices, investing in domestic energy, tax reform and promoting clean energy.

One aspect of the clean energy requirements has received an elevated level of scrutiny and is already having an effect on individuals and auto manufacturers. A purchaser of an electric vehicle (EV) is eligible to claim a tax credit of up to $7,500, but with this law it only applies if the vehicle’s final assembly occurs in North America.

Foreign automakers such as Hyundai were surprised by the immediate application of the condition and are rushing to find ways to comply.

Specifics on other ways for consumers to save when buying zero emission cars, though, are still being negotiated. For example, the Treasury Department has said that more guidance on electric vehicle tax credits regarding battery requirements will be coming in March 2023.

A new Free Trade Agreement Interpretation is Announced

The Treasury Department said in a white paper Dec. 29 that it was using a broad definition of which countries have a free trade agreement with the U.S. The effect would be that cars produced by international automobile manufacturers could qualify for some tax credits.

Also announced was guidance for a separate tax credit for commercial clean vehicles that would give non-U.S. car companies a chance at eligibility.

The European Union officially praised the policy decision.

“New guidance issued today by the U.S. reaffirms that E.U. companies can benefit from the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit scheme under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act,” the European Commission said in a statement. “The E.U. welcomes this guidance, which reflects the constructive engagement as part of the EU-US Inflation Reduction Act Task Force at senior official level.”

The statement did, however, include an opinion on policy around the main tax credits.

“The EU continues to seek similar, non-discriminatory treatment of EU clean vehicle producers under the Clean Vehicle Credits of the Inflation Reduction Act,” it clarified. “This scheme remains of concern to the EU, as it contains discriminatory provisions which de facto exclude EU companies from benefiting. Discriminating against EU produced clean vehicles and inputs violates international trade law and unfairly disadvantages EU companies on the US market, reduces the choices available to US consumers and ultimately reduces the climate effectiveness of this green subsidy.”

One Senator Voices His Disapproval

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a vocal advocate of the North America final assembly provision and supporter of U.S.-based manufacturing of EVs, was not pleased with the new free trade agreement leniency.

The Treasury Department’s explanation “bends to the desires of the companies looking for loopholes and is clearly inconsistent with the intent of the law,” he said, according to Politico. 

On Twitter, Stock Talk Weekly (@stocktalkweekly) quotes Manchin being very blunt about the action he would like to see.

“U.S. Senator Joe Manchin says ‘I urge the U.S. Treasury to halt the implementation of electric vehicle tax credits,'” it said in a tweet.

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TheStreet 

The Paris version of the ride made a major theme change. Could the U.S. version follow?

Whenever a Disney ride closes, it creates speculation on what will happen to the ride. Will Disney just perform routine maintenance, or will it add to the theme or completely retheme the ride? Walt Disney himself knew before opening any theme park it would take constant updating.

Walt Disney World  (DIS) – Get Free Report in Orlando, Fla., is closing one of its rides for a lengthy time at its Hollywood Studios theme park. Disney World takes advantage of the least appealing weather during the winter and uses it as its ‘off season’ in January and February, meaning lots of rides will be scheduled to be down for periods of time. Hollywood Studios will permanently end these rides, Jedi Training Academy: Trials of the Temple, Star Wars: Galactic Spectacular, and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Disney will temporarily close Frozen Sing-Along Celebration in January, it should reopen by the end of January.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will close Kali River Rapids starting on Jan 9 with the end date undetermined and ,it will permanently close and demolish Primeval Whirl. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be down for only a few days in January. Over in the Magic Kingdom, it is closing its iconic Splash Mountain on Jan. 2, 2023, and it will get a completely new theme.

Curtain Call on Disney Ride

Hollywood Studios is closing the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster that features legendary band Aerosmith that has been around for roughly half a century. 

Disney has said that the ride is just closed for routine maintenance and should reopen summer of 2023, according to BlogMickey.com. The ride originally opened to the public in 1999. There was a sister coaster in Disneyland Paris, which opened in 2002, closed in 2019 and was rethemed with the Avengers.

Since the Paris ride was rethemed, the speculation is high on whether or not the Hollywood Studios Florida ride meets the same fate. The retheme could be Star Wars or any number of Pixar films. Any retheme of the ride probably wouldn’t be Marvel since there is a deal between Universal Studios Florida and the MCU. So even if the Hollywood Studios Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster does get a makeover, it likely will not be the same as the one in Paris. 

When One Door Closes Another Opens

Disney will always be in the midst of changing its theme parks. Walt Disney knew in the very beginning that to stay relevant and new, the parks would always be refurbishing, retheming and reimagining the rides and attractions all over the park. 

When the news broke about the refurbishment of the Rock ‘N’ Roller ride via Twitter, fans began to pitch new themes and also said the ride definitely needs some work done. 

“It needs it, badly… great ride that is showing some aging scuffs…” – tweeted @GlenCarballo. 

“This lengthy refurbishment probably has more to do with the launch system than anything else. The Aerosmith contract ends in a few days, but Disney can still pay UMG to use the songs.” -tweeted Frank @kingdomadvntrs. 

While other tweets went on to suggest other new themes. It is clear, there are a mixed bag of feelings about the ride and its theme. With such a huge fanbase Disney always faces some sort of backlash for any change to its existing attractions, even after the attraction has truly outlived its purpose and audience. 

Splash Mountain being the perfect case, as Disney fans love the ride, but the outdated theme needs to be redone. The retheme will bring the “Princess and the Frog” to the outdated attraction. Whereas instead of having a profound negative connotation of “Song of the South,” it will showcase a “Princess and the Frog” character Tiana chasing her dreams and empower young women. This is the direction that audiences want to see Disney move towards. 

While many Disney fans will miss rides and attractions that bring that nostalgia back from their childhood, sometimes it is best to retheme.  Disney said it best in “Frozen,” “Let it Go.”

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TheStreet 

The move paves the way for a new casino and potentially brings a major new player to the Las Vegas Strip.

Most Las Vegas Strip deals are splashy with the land purchase sort of kicking off the publicity cycle for whatever massive casino, resort, or attraction might someday get built on the property. That’s essentially what Houston Rockets owner Tillman Fertitta has done.

The billionaire, who also owns the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street, purchased land on the Las Vegas Strip located between Caesars Entertainment’s (CZR) – Get Free Report  Planet Hollywood and MGM Resorts International’s (MGM) – Get Free Report MGM Grand in April. That purchase was major news, as was his October reveal of his intentions for the property.

Fertitta plans to take on Caesars and MGM in their own backyard with a 43-story, 2,420-room hotel/casino.

“The upscale project, on roughly 6 acres at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, calls for restaurants, convention space, a spa, wedding chapel, auto showroom, and a theater with around 2,500 seats, Clark County records show. It would also include suites and villas, VIP salons and a bar and lounge for high-limit gamblers, building plans indicate,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

No actual construction has happened, but Fertitta has people talking, which probably helps raise financing for the project and will build excitement for its eventual opening.

The NBA owner is not, however, the only player with big plans on the Las Vegas Strip. Another potential Caesars and MGM rival has quietly put together the land required to build a new casino, but it has been taking a much more stealthy approach.

That might at least partially be because of the history of the piece of land it’s buying.

Image source: Shutterstock

MGM Sells a Piece of Strip Land

MGM has sold, “The Village,” a piece of land on the Las Vegas Strip across the street from Luxor and next to the Tropicana, to the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota.

The land has been used as a concert ground and it was the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history,

“Concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival gathered there on Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman opened fire from his hotel room above. He killed 58 people. Two more died later of their injuries. More than 850 people were hurt by the time the gunfire stopped,” U.S. News reported.

The site has been vacant since the shooting.

MGM CEO sent an email to employees commenting on the sale of the 13 acres of Strip-fronted land.

“We know the importance this location holds to so many and have always put tremendous thought into every consideration involving the site,” Hornbuckle wrote. “This is no exception.”

MGM has already donated two acres of property at the site to Clark County to be used as a memorial.

Meet the Strip’s Newest Player

Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota has been moving very quietly to put together the property needed to build a Strip resort/casino. In July 2021, the group bought a vacant 8.7-acre parcel of land adjacent to its more recent purchase.

“At the time of the 2020 purchase, Tribal Chairman Mark Fox said his organization could build anything from a casino to a parking lot on its new property. Fox told the Brainerd (Minn.) Dispatch, ‘We saw it as an opportunity to get land — prime real estate land — in Las Vegas for a good price, and that’s essentially why we went there,'” the Review-Journal reported.

MGM had once released plans to use the Village site as a parking lot for Las Vegas Raiders games and other events at Allegiant Stadium. It seems unlikely, that the Three Affiliated Tribes, which operates 4 Bears Casino & Lodge on Fort Berthold Reservation land since 1993 would make this investment in Las Vegas merely to open a parking lot.

The new owner has not released a specific plan for the site but shared the following statement.

“This is a sound investment for the MHA Nation,” said John Fredericks III, an attorney representing the Tribes. “There are no immediate specific plans for development but the MHA Nation will be exploring its development opportunities in the near term.”

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TheStreet 

This year was about getting back to normal for the cruise line, but the next one will include some major changes.

Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) – Get Free Report spent most of 2022 getting its business back to normal. It began the year under the shadow of the pandemic with limited capacities, covid testing, vaccine requirements and the looming shadow of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) monitoring its actions.

As the year went on, those covid-era rules slowly went away. It took until August for the cruise line to fully drop its vaccine requirements (except for cruises where the destinations still have mandates in place), but when it happened business jumped.

CEO Jason Liberty shared just how far the cruise line has come when he spoke during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

“A powerful and nimble commercial apparatus, coupled with strong execution by our operating teams have delivered another quarter of strong performance that exceeded our expectations. Our entire fleet is operating globally in our key destinations, demand for our experiences was very strong, and we achieved 96% load factors overall with the Caribbean at close to 105% at record pricing and high satisfaction scores. We delivered adjusted EBITDA of $742 million and positive earnings per share of $0.26, which was above our guidance,” he said.

Basically, after a long dark period, Royal Caribbean is back and it’s headed into a very different 2023. In the coming year, the company plans some major changes that will be met with mixed feelings by its customers.

TheStreet

1. Faster Internet Coming to Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean has slowly been rolling out Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink internet to its ships. The company started with Freedom of the Seas, which sails three- and four-day itineraries out of Miami and the reports on social media from passengers have been stellar.

The new service takes the cruise line’s Voom, which it billed “the fastest internet at sea,” and actually delivers on that promise. While the old service was technically faster than what other cruise lines offered, the fastest at sea claim was a bit like saying “this is the best menu item at Applebee’s.” Sure, it’s true, but it’s of dubious value.

Royal Caribbean plans to bring Starlink to all the ships in its namesake and Celebrity fleets in early 2023. The company has not said whether it will charge more for the service, but so far it has not increased prices on ships where the much-improved internet has rolled out.  

2. Royal Caribbean Making Major Main Dining Room Menu Changes

While customers may love faster internet speeds, they’re probably not going to be happy with the changes Royal Caribbean is making to its main dining room (MDR) menus. The cruise line tested new menus on Symphony of the Seas in late 2022 and plans to implement the change across the fleet in early 2023.

Basically, each night will now have a theme like “Italian,” “Mexican,” or American favorites. Not every menu item offered will fit the theme, but the number of choices will be smaller and  “classics” section of the menu would no longer be offered.

That section offered a few basic items — New York strip steak, spaghetti bolognese, a basic chicken, and a few others every night. Not offering those choices won’t be received well by picky eaters or parents of teenagers who aren’t all that daring.

The cruise line is being careful with the changes, which are being made at least partially to speed up service and reduce waste.

“We’re very thoughtful and conscious about any changes that we make. But we do think that where we’re heading with the new menus is going to be better and more enjoyable,” Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley said in December.  

3. Royal Caribbean Wants Higher Prices

During its comeback from the pandemic, Royal Caribbean has generally kept prices low. Holidays and newer ships have sometimes been an exception, but cruise fares were low compared to where they were in 2019 and Liberty wants to see that change in 2023.

“The value proposition of cruise remains incredibly attractive, I would say too attractive,” he said during the earnings call.

Liberty has talked about how cruise prices have been low compared to land-based vacations, but he does see that trend changing in 2023.

“We received twice as many bookings for 2023 sailings in Q3, as we did in Q2, resulting in considerably higher booking volumes than during the same period for 2019 sailings,” he said. “As a result, all four quarters of 2023 are booked well within historical ranges at record prices, with bookings accelerating every week.”

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Business Insider 

Ieisha Franceis, who works at a Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers in North Carolina, raises her fist in solidarity for a $15 minimum wage.

Fight for $15 and a Union

A total of 23 states are hiking minimum wages this year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 
The changes will impact 8.4 million workers, and especially women and people of color.
See the full list of states and the adjusted rates, below.

A new year means higher minimum wages in 23 states, leading to increased pay for an estimated 8.4 million US workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

The rate hikes are the result of a variety of factors, including inflation, state legislation, and ballot measures. They will benefit women and workers of color most, as noted by Insider’s Juliana Kaplan.

As a result of the boosts, two states will reach the $15-an-hour minimum for the first time, a salary floor that activist groups like Fight For $15 have pushed for heavily in recent years.

With the help of activist efforts and legislators, states and cities have been working independently to increase rates as the federal minimum wage stagnates at $7.25 — an amount that hasn’t risen in 13 years. 

While many of the adjusted rates will be effective starting Jan. 1, others come into effect later, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project.

Here’s the full list of states increasing minimum wage and the new rates coming in 2023, according to NELP data:

Alaska: $10.85, up from $10.34Arizona: $13.85, up from $12.80California: $15.50, up from $14 for small employers and $15 for large employers Colorado: $13.65, up from $12.56Delaware: $11.75 (with legislation to reach $15 by 2025), up from $10.50Illinois: $13 (with legislation to reach $15 by 2025), up from $12 Maine: $13.80, up from $12.75Maryland: $13.25 for large employers and $12.80 for small employers (with legislation to reach $15 by 2025), up from $12.50 and $12.20, respectivelyMassachusetts: $15, up from $14.25Michigan: $10.10 (with pending legislation to reach $12.05 by 2030), up from $9.87Minnesota: $10.59 for large employers and $8.63 for small employers, up from $10.33 and $8.42, respectivelyMissouri: $12, up from $11.15Montana: $9.95 (based on 2006 legislation), up from $9.20 Nebraska: $10.50 (with legislation to reach $15 by 2026), up from $9New Jersey: $14 for standard workers (with legislation to reach $15 by 2024-2027), up from $13New Mexico: $12, up from $11.50New York: $15 for New York City and suburbs/$14.20 upstate, up from $13.20 upstate Ohio: $10.10 (based on 2006 amendment), up from $9.30Rhode Island: $13 (with legislation to reach $15 by 2025), up from $12.25South Dakota: $10.80, up from $9.95Vermont: $13.18, up from $12.55Virginia: $12 (with legislation to reach $15 by 2026), up from $11Washington: $15.74, up from $14.49

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Business Insider 

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Ginni Thomas affirmed that she did not speak with Clarence Thomas about 2020 election challenges.
On Friday, the conservative activist’s September testimony with the January 6 panel was released.
Thomas during her interview was unable to point to any specific instances of voter fraud in 2020.

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, told the January 6 committee that it was “laughable” for anyone who knew her husband to believe that she could “influence” his judicial philosophy.

The conservative activist — who in September gave a voluntary interview to the House panel probing the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol — told the members that Clarence Thomas is “stubborn” and “uninterested in politics.”

“I am certain I never spoke with him about any of the legal challenges to the 2020 election, as I was not involved in those challenges in any way,” Ginni Thomas told the panel during her interview, noting that she had an “ironclad” household rule on not discussing pending court cases with Clarence Thomas. “Let me also add, it’s laughable for anyone who knows my husband to think I could influence his jurisprudence. The man is independent and stubborn, with strong character traits of independence and integrity.”

Ginni Thomas, who in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 presidential election exchanged texts with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows where she pushed him to challenge now-President Joe Biden’s victory over then-President Donald Trump, said during her January 6 interview that she regretted sending the messages to the high-ranking Trump administration official.

“I regret all of these texts,” she told the committee during her closed-door testimony, which was released to the public on Friday. “It was an emotional time, and people were scared that there had been enough fraud happening that they weren’t going to get to the bottom of it. So that’s how I would look at that one.”

Ginni Thomas during her January 6 committee interview admitted that while she had concerns about voter fraud in the 2020 election, she couldn’t pinpoint specific cases of such malfeasance.

“I can’t say that I was familiar at the time with any specific evidence,” she told the members. “I was just hearing it from news reports and friends on the ground, grassroots activists who were inside of various polling places that found things suspicious.”

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Republican vice chair of the January 6 panel, then asked Ginni Thomas to confirm her lack of verifiable information about voting irregularities in 2020.

“Right. I know. I wasn’t very deep; I admit it,” she told Cheney.

“I was hearing it, Congresswoman, from a lot of people I trust. So trusted people were telling me there were problems, and I just thought there should be people at the state level investigating those before it was too late,” she added.

After the 2020 election, Thomas also emailed a range of GOP legislators in Arizona and Wisconsin — two key swing states where Biden narrowly outpaced Trump — where she also pushed them to help overturn Biden’s victory.

Ginni Thomas, well-known in GOP circles for decades, has only in the past few years become a larger figure in the public sphere, driven by her ties to prominent conservatives as her husband has taken a prominent role as a leader of the now-dominant conservative bloc on the Supreme Court.

With a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court, Justice Thomas’ judicial philosophy has taken on incredible significance as the conservative bloc is set to reshape some of the most pertinent issues in American society for the foreseeable future.

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