Our corrupt government has spent all the social security contributions that America’s private sector workers and employers have contributed, for the better part of 100 years, expanding the size and scope of government.

Does anybody care? Is anybody watching?

A thought-provoking article was published last week by the Christian Science Monitor.

The Wall Street Journal says:

Low-performing employees — from executives to entry-level workers — likely won’t see their paychecks rise much next year. But for high performers, raises will remain in line with 2008 increases as employers intensify the trend of reserving the bulk of pay raises for top talent.

“Companies are trying to use their money more wisely,” said Steve Gross, a global practice leader at Mercer LLC, a New York human-resources consulting firm, which is set to release its annual U.S. compensation report Thursday.

The full article includes industry-by-industry breakouts.

With GPS technology, we can know where—exactly where—our employees are, 24/7. Is it an invasion of privacy to ask questions based on that information? HR.BLR.com asks today’s experts to sort out the issues and offer practical advice…

Forbes asks:

Will employees ever learn that anything they write in an e-mail can and will be used against them?

The full article has painful examples for you to consider…

The California Supreme Court has ruled most non-compete employment contract clauses are invalid.

Law.com has http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423653798 on the decision.

A video store retailer has agreed to pay the government $630,000 to settle employee allegations that they suffered ethnic harassment, and then retaliation when they reported it.

A small retailer has agreed to pay $425,000 for “failure to promote,” which will settle an EEOC racial discrimination action against it.

While big businesses shed workers, small ones added over 7,000 jobs in July, according to CNN Money.

“Small businesses have been somewhat of the employment savior,” said researcher Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisors. “When I look at this report, I see a continuation of a pattern that’s been in play for a while. We have a sharp contraction going on in manufacturing and construction, offset roughly by continued, modest expansion in the service sector.”

Forbes published this article yesterday noting this year’s surge in pink slips…

Rising oil prices and curbed consumer spending forced the transportation industry to trim its payroll headcount by 17,051. Write-down-ridden Wall Street followed closely behind with 15,517 cuts. So far this year, planned layoffs in the mortgage and subprime sector have reached 92,547, pushing past the 2007 tally of 86,126. Retail jobs were squeezed by penny-pinching consumers, reporting 12,160 layoffs during the month of July.

While businesses swing the axe to weather tough times, consumers are battling rising prices.

Companies are constantly on the prowl for ways to cut costs, and moving full-time employees into part-time positions is one approach. From July 2007 to July 2008, the number of U.S. workers forced to work part-time rose from 4.5 million to just under 6.1 million, while the number who chose to move to part-time work declined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “That’s a huge change,” and quite indicative of the current economy, according to John Challenger, a Chicago workplace expert. Keep these points in mind whether you’ve reduced your hours by choice or not.

Here’s the full story from the Wall Street Journal.