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October 7, 2019

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Business October 7, 2019

New Study Finds Parents Pay Kids An Allowance Of $30 A Week On Average

A recent study found that the average allowance for kids is $30 a week. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with certified public accountant Michael Eisenberg about that number.



MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

It happens every week in my household. My kids hunt me down, hold out their palms and ask, may I please get my allowance? They are supposed to do regular chores. I’m supposed to hand over pocket money, but how much? Well, a new study by professional CPAs asked parents and found $30 is the weekly average. Joining us now is Michael Eisenberg from the American Institute of CPAs, which commissioned the study.

Mr. Eisenberg, welcome.

MICHAEL EISENBERG: Thank you.

KELLY: First off, just your top line reaction to that number – 30 bucks a week. Did that strike you as high, low? What did you think?

EISENBERG: It was a shocker to me because my kids are a bit older, and they certainly didn’t get $30 a week when they were growing up. That’s for sure.

KELLY: So what number did your study find in terms of how many – what percentage of American parents do tie the chores to the allowance?

EISENBERG: It’s a pretty high percentage. I would say that more than half of the people surveyed were saying that yes, there should be chores associated with the money.

KELLY: Another number that jumped out at me was that just 3% said that their kid put anything aside for savings, and I guess that jumped out at me because one of the goals of giving children an allowance is supposed to be teaching them fiscal responsibility and the value of money. Is that a big disconnect there?

EISENBERG: I think it is a big disconnect, and you see that as the kids grow older. Whether they’re in high school or college or getting out of college, their knowledge of financial literacy is very low, unfortunately, because they’re not always getting this information at home. They’re certainly not getting it at schools, but the place to really start giving this information is with the parents at home.

KELLY: So do these findings point us toward some better way of handling allowance or some better way to take allowance out of the equation completely, some better way to teach kids about money?

EISENBERG: Well, you know, I think the other thing that parents can do is – and I know this is old-fashioned, but it’s certainly still true today, and it works – take the young person into the bank themselves. And if you set up a savings account with them and you make deposits into the child’s account, you can show them it’s getting bigger and bigger. They can see it in black and white, and that’s what happens when you start to save.

KELLY: Yeah. Did you get an allowance?

EISENBERG: I didn’t get an allowance, but as I got a little bit older in high school, I actually went to work with my dad on weekends. He had a dry cleaning store in New York at the time, and he would have me in the store working.

KELLY: Yeah.

EISENBERG: And my dad, you know, he gave me some money. That was part of it, but he also taught me the other social skills that somebody needs when they’re out in the real world.

KELLY: What about families who are not in a position financially to be able to give allowance of any amount? What is your advice to them?

EISENBERG: What that family can do is sit down and talk with the kids and show them. We have a little budget, and we’re spending money here and here and here. But the other thing the parents can do which I think is really important is – you start to talk to the children and say, you know what? Here it is in May or June, and, you know, we’re going to be going back to school in August or September, and you would love to have that new backpack. How about we sit down and we say we’re going to put away X amount of dollars each week or each month towards the purchase of that backpack or pair of sneakers or whatever it’s going to be? So the child has this goal that he or she are reaching for, and the parents are not overextending themselves and also trying to – and will accomplish getting something for the kid when they go back to school, which they would have done anyway.

KELLY: Yeah. It sounds like what you’re describing is – it’s not the amount that matters. It’s the talking to your kids so that they understand the value of money. That’s the important thing here.

EISENBERG: That is so true, and the parents shouldn’t be ashamed that they don’t know that much about finances to talk to their kids. They can talk in very simplistic terms to the child, and the child will get it.

KELLY: That is Michael Eisenberg. He is on the financial literacy commission of the American Institute of CPAs talking there about weekly allowance.

Michael Eisenberg, thank you.

EISENBERG: Thank you.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports October 7, 2019

Houston Rockets Face Backlash After Manager Tweets Support For Hong Kong Protests

The NBA’s Houston Rockets are facing backlash in China after the team’s general manager tweeted out support for protests in Hong Kong.



MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

And the NBA is in the middle of a political firestorm. This started Friday with a tweet from the general manager of the Houston Rockets – a tweet supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. That tweet drew heavy condemnation in China. Then the league issued its own statement, trying to smooth things over, and that has now cranked up criticism of the NBA here in the states. Well, here to fill us in on what is going on here is NPR’s senior business editor Uri Berliner.

Hey, Uri.

URI BERLINER, BYLINE: Hello, Mary Louise.

KELLY: What did this tweet say? Why has it been so controversial?

BERLINER: So Daryl Morey – let’s start with him – general manager of the Rockets, as you said, one of the most highly respected executives in the league. But in this context, what’s important is that the Rockets have really deep ties to China, a huge fan following. China’s first NBA star, Yao Ming, played for the Rockets.

KELLY: I remember.

BERLINER: Yeah. So last week, Morey tweeted an image reading, fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong. And China, obviously, is very sensitive about outside criticism of its policies, especially on democracy and human rights. China responded in a really harsh way.

KELLY: In a really harsh way meaning what? What has China said?

BERLINER: Well, the Chinese Basketball Association, whose president happens to be that Yao Ming, suspended its relationship with the Rockets. Tencent – that’s the big Chinese social media company – said it would stop streaming Rockets games. And the Chinese consulate in Houston put out a statement. It said, we’re deeply shocked by the erroneous comments on Hong Kong made by Mr. Daryl Morey.

KELLY: What about the NBA? I’ve said they put out a statement, trying to calm everything down. It sounds like the exact opposite has happened.

BERLINER: Yeah, the NBA issued one statement in English and another appeared in Mandarin on the league’s social media site there. In English, the statement is kind of vague. It says the league, quote, “supports individuals educating themselves and sharing their views on matters that are important to them.” The English version doesn’t explicitly criticize Morey but says it’s regrettable that Chinese were offended. The Chinese version, translated by my Mandarin-speaking colleagues here, strikes a very different tone. It says, quote, “we are extremely disappointed in the inappropriate views of Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. He undoubtedly has deeply hurt the feelings of Chinese basketball fans.”

KELLY: Wow. That’s a totally different statement.

BERLINER: It sure sounds different, yeah.

KELLY: The league has said the English version is their official one?

BERLINER: They did say that, yes.

KELLY: OK. But the NBA is now coming under attack from all over the place on Twitter for – people are saying they caved to China.

BERLINER: All over – on the left, on the right. Senator Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said the NBA is, quote, “shamefully retreating in pursuit of big money.” Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro says the U.S. shouldn’t allow American citizens to be bullied by an authoritarian government. Now, this isn’t likely to be over anytime soon. The NBA is playing preseason games in China this week, and it’ll be interesting to see how the commissioner, Adam Silver, reconciles the league’s business interests with its core values.

KELLY: Are the Rockets going to be there?

BERLINER: No.

KELLY: It’s so fascinating, Uri, because – correct me if I’m wrong here, but the NBA has been much more tolerant of – even encouraging of – players, managers, coaches to speak their mind, whether it’s social issues, political issues, compared to, say, baseball or American football.

BERLINER: Absolutely, that’s true. The NBA has supported its players and coaches when they express their views on things like police violence or guns or whether college athletes should be paid. Now, this situation with Daryl Morey’s tweet is really going to put the league’s commitment to free expression to the test. China is the NBA’s biggest international market. Hundreds of millions of people in China watch the NBA every season.

KELLY: Has Daryl Morey come out and said anything since the tweet?

BERLINER: He’s put out a new tweet kind of backtracking a little bit but not a full-on apology. It kind of reads like it might have been vetted by a bunch of lawyers.

KELLY: (Laughter) OK. NPR’s Uri Berliner.

Thanks, Uri.

BERLINER: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health October 7, 2019

Lawmakers Seek Protections For Workers Against Lung Damage Tied To Making Countertops

A colored X-ray of the lungs of a patient with silicosis, a type of pneumoconiosis. The yellow grainy masses in the lungs are areas of scarred tissue and inflammation.

CNRI/Science Photo Library/Getty Images


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Lawmakers in Congress are calling on the Department of Labor to do more to protect workers who may be unsafely cutting “engineered stone” used for countertops.

The material contains high levels of the mineral silica, and breathing in silica dust is dangerous. While silica is found in natural stones, like granite, engineered stone made of quartz can be more than 90% silica.

This type of artificial stone has become increasingly popular among Americans for kitchen and bathroom countertops in recent years.

Even though adequate dust control can completely eliminate the risk of silica-related disease, at least 18 workers in California, Colorado, Texas and Washington who cut slabs of this material to order have recently suffered severe lung damage, according to physicians and public health officials.

Two of the workers died of their silicosis, a lung disease that can be progressive and has no treatment except for lung transplant. That has occupational safety experts worried about the nearly 100,000 people who work in this industry.

And it’s gotten the attention of the House Committee on Education and Labor. Its chairman, Bobby Scott, and Alma Adams, who chairs a subcommittee on workforce protections, have now written to Labor Department Secretary Eugene Scalia.

The lawmakers say the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration needs to create a new National Emphasis Program that will make it easier to for the agency to inspect workplaces that cut engineered stone, to make sure levels of silica dust are within allowable limits.

“We are calling on OSHA to issue, without delay, a new NEP that focuses on engineered stone fabrication establishments,” the lawmakers write. “Absent timely action, OSHA will be failing these stone finishing workers and failing in its mission.”

Without this new program, they say, “it is difficult for OSHA to enter a workplace without a worker complaint, injury, or referral.”

The two lawmakers also call on OSHA to work with the CDC and state health departments to improve surveillance for silica-related diseases. They say they want an update on the plans to protect workers in the engineered stone fabrication industry by Oct. 21.

A trade organization for makers of engineered stone, A.St.A. World-Wide, has told NPR that “these risks are not specific to engineered stone” and that dust related diseases “preceded the invention of engineered stone by many decades.”

The group said engineered stone surfaces “are totally safe in their fabrication and installation if it is performed according to the recommended practices,” and that manufacturers have been working to educate fabricators about these practices.

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