#cost

Does anybody know why UK CRO and senior risk MDs were let go today. Regulatory or Cost Saving driven?

Mark Cuban said that Cigna is Overcharging Employers that Use Cigna. Doesn’t Humana force their employees to get their health insurance through Cigna Health Insurance?

Mark Cuban Says Public Companies Found They Were ‘Ripped Off’ On Healthcare But Won’t Say So On Earnings Calls
https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/mark-cuban-says-public-companies-155820186.html

The cost for healthcare insurance has gone up each year. In 2027, without subsidies a family of 2 will pay an average monthly premium of $2800 to $3000 per month with high deductible. I am considering not to buy healthcare insurance, pay cash for the service. The other option is to move to another country to live, low cost of living, $2500 a year for healthcare insurance.

If you don't have pension, don't retire early. Healthcare cost is $3000 per month. Deductible is $10,000 per year.

If you do plan to retire early, before 65, then plan to move to another country. Don't live in the US. Cost of living in other countries are 1/4 of the US. This is my own experience. Good luck.

Elad Nafshi spent billions on upgrading coax. Now let's see what he waists more billions on! And hey made him more powerful and richer.

Serious question for California employees only: How are you guys surviving on these McDonald’s-level wages?

With rent, mortgages, groceries, gas, insurance and everything else costing what it does in California, I genuinely don’t understand how some of these salaries are supposed to be enough.

I’m especially curious about people making around $50k–$70k a year. Are you living with family, splitting rent, working a second job, or just barely getting by?

California responses only please. I’m not interested in hearing how $60k is “great money” in Mississippi, Oklahoma, or some random low-cost state. I’m specifically asking how people make it work in California.

Happy open enrollment day! Good news: your deductible has increased from $2,000 to $3,000! Your groceries and gas are still at an all time high, while raises have not kept up with inflation, and now Waters has negotiated insurance that sc--ws up with your finances again! Just couple years ago the deductible was $1,500.

For many of you recently, or not so recently, impacted by Capone's horrid practices and layoffs and are on COBRA - brace yourselves! A mailer came today with the NEW and HIGHER rates for 2027! WOW - The gotcha's keep on comin'... I thought the 2026 rates were bad enough, but 2027's.... well, for those that may still be dependent on COBRA into 2027, ... prayers up!!! Pathetic!

What is everyone else seeing? Do they folks who are on the fence will now leave? This is definitely a sign for US employees. Dental and vision no change, but they are small cost. Voluntary life insurance up 70%, using same criteria as 2026.

Am I crazy or did rates go way up? I know the switch from bi-weekly to semimonthly adds a bit, but I’m seeing the cheapest option for the employee only HSA Plan in the low 90’s. I currently pay just under 50 for my medical premium. Unless I’m reading something wrong, that’s about a 70% increase year over year.

WTF

Do we even know the down AI spend. More AI spend = more layoff

We are making Anthropic, OpenAI and cursor rich

Dst was blind to subaccounting. A vp put together contracts that ignored subaccounting and cost dst a bundle. My manager was blind as a bat and refused to acknowledge i knew more than him. He was a tantrum throwing immature guy

Has anyone received their cobra subsidy yet from centene? I haven't paid my premium yet since centene hasn't applied the subsidy. Its so expensive without it. I need the coverage though.

My food bills have doubled from going into work every day now thanks for the cut in pay it’s great.
I don’t want to see my gasoline cc that should be coming this week
It’s almost criminal what they’ve pulled on us.
There just does not have to be a need for every single employee to come in every single day.
Oh wait.
I forgot only a few locations (boston) are getting the ROYAL SC--W JOB!!!
Wow how to totally disenfranchise 5000 employees.
Do you think your wealthy clients know you’re sc--wing the very people you depend on to carry the Fidelity torch?
I think not.
😡

Just got my open enrollment brochure emailed today. Premiums going up 20%, deductible going up, MOOP going up. Of course, the amount 3M contributes to the HSA doesn’t increase.

Seems like they are trying to push people into the new “variable co-pay plan”. Bill Brown must be a getting a nice kickback from UHC!

Interesting survey from Inc.

• The ‘RTO tax’ costs workers time as well as money
• The average office worker is losing more than $6,700 a year to the "RTO tax,"
• For those who need childcare, the "tax" more than doubles to $16,538.
• If we’re asking employees to return to the office, we need to help them get there.
  https://www.inc.com/bruce-crumley/the-real-cost-of-rto-isnt-lost-flexibility-workers-pay-6736-a-year-just-to-show-up/91414492
  LinkedIn discussions https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/the-true-cost-of-rto-6700-a-year-or-more-7668724/

EMTECH has become the biggest joke inside ExxonMobil. An overhyped “innovation hub” that delivers little beyond slide decks and buzzwords. And DAC? It’s the crown‑level scam they keep parading as breakthrough technology, despite everyone internally knowing it’s a money‑burning fantasy project with no realistic path to performance or scale.

How disastrous do y'all think this meeting will be? I am guessing we will be told about exploding costs after hearing about SV and Di's worldwide tours.

Seattle's minimum wage will increase to $22.14 per hour starting January 1, 2027. This new rate applies to all employers within the city limits, irrespective of their size. The annual adjustment is based on regional inflation data. While some businesses cite rising operational costs, including labor, as a challenge, the article notes multiple factors contribute to closures and hiring slowdowns. The upcoming increase represents an 84-cent per hour rise from the 2026 rate.

Seattle, Washington

https://cedarnews.net/newstasks/1030098/seattle-minimum-wage-rises-to-22-14-in-2027-as-restaurants-face-rising-costs-and-job-growth-slows/

trim down bushes? Fine

New construction, expanded water fountains? Why? How many jobs is that ?

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/ai-token-spending-businesses-431ee94a?st=UcoUZL

First, there was #tokenmaxxing, whereby American businesses encouraged their workers to use as much AI as possible. Then came the bill.

Companies started to realize they need to be more careful about counting their tokens, the units that measure AI use. And that’s hard to do: A recent study found that only 11% of nearly 400 businesses surveyed were able to accurately forecast AI spending.

CEOs

So, I guess CareFirst thinks they are going to further price-gouge their members to try and fix their upper management/CEO financial incompetencies/mistakes. Just got my medical policy renewal on the exchange for 2027, and it increased by 18%. They are just going to lose more members with this asinine move -- including this member. I will NOT be renewing. Good luck, CareFirst. You best start asking somebody for your bailout now. You're not coming back from this one.

So I know that this is bigger than GT this time, much bigger, but the irony astounds me.

A whole costly office infrastructure process just to lay off probably 1/4 of the people who will be there. More if they plan to force all of GT to India. Put aside the morale issue, how on earth is this managing costs?

:(

Healthcare costs continue to rise. Will we see big increases in employee contributions?

Remember that employee survey a year or two ago about benefits? I wonder what happened with those results.

Has anyone compared their healthcare costs? I just looked and HSA went from roughly 2k/yr to 9k. Am I seeing straight? I did get an email about a pay tier change… but that’s not worth a 7k increase. Anyone?

They wouldn't be forcing us to drive to an office while gas prices are out of control.
The cost of commuting is such an unnecessary burden when we were highly effective as fully remote employees for 5 years!
Love doing more work for less money!

33 Directors + 3 VPs + 2 SVPs = A tone-deaf waste of time and money.

The math is hard to ignore - between flights, lodging, meals, and lost working hours, this easily represents close to a half-million dollar investment. For that expense, I'd expect a concrete deliverable: a roadmap, reorg decision, or a prioritized set of initiatives with owners and dates. As far as I can tell, none of that has materialized - nor will it. No memo, no readout, no change in direction.

This seems like a good moment to ask a harder question: why does IT currently support a director population this large relative to its actual scope of delivery? A retreat of this size implies a leadership bench that, on paper, should be shaping strategy, but the day-to-day experience for most of the org is that priorities shift reactively, tickets sit unworked, and nobody below the director layer can point to what these roles are actually accountable for.

If 39 directors and above can be pulled out of the building for a week with no discernible business impact, it's evidence the roles themselves may be over-provisioned.

Seriously considering telling Fido that I literally CANNOT absorb the extra financial cost of commuting to work every day when gas is projected to hit $6/gal. Is anyone else concerned about this? Sure, it’s fine if you live within a few miles but my commute is over an hour combined. How is this okay with Abby and why is no one doing anything about it?

Does anyone know how much this transformation has cost the company? And how many Americans lost their jobs to other countries?

Two concerns currently:

1. AI is super concerning after some of the news this week that it could eliminate the entire human race in 10 years.. don’t understand how the company can force it on us and constantly question how we are using it. Not comfortable with it in any aspect of my life.

2. Their rationing oil in the US at this point. The cost of an oil change is about to skyrocket. We won’t be able to afford to maintain our vehicles. Many top performers don’t live in a city where public transportation is an option when it gets to that point. Thank God, I only have one kid because the cost of daycare and an oil change in the same month means I don’t eat.

I don’t know what the best solution is, but in Office mandates has put a tremendous amount of stress on the workforce - America and the American companies are failing their people who are truly trying to push forward through some very challenging circumstances.

Nestle CEO says Middle East conflict driving inflation, higher supplier costs

• Middle East accounts for about 2% to 3% of Nestle's roughly 90 billion Swiss francs in sales
• Nestle may buy strategically important brands as it reviews portfolio periodically, Navratil says
• Navratil says food manufacturers should join India talks on ​proposed front-of-pack warning labels

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/nestle-ceo-says-middle-east-conflict-driving-inflation-higher-supplier-costs-2026-09-10/

Bloomberg Law is reporting that DHS is proposing a new $103,265 fee for cap-subject H-1B petitions, including petitions involving workers who are already in the United States.

This is separate from the earlier $100,000 H-1B entry fee that applied primarily to workers being brought into the country. That fee was struck down by a federal judge and is currently being appealed.

A few key points:

• The proposed fee would apply to H-1B petitions subject to the annual cap.
• That includes the regular 65,000 H-1B slots and the additional 20,000 advanced-degree slots.
• Universities, hospitals and certain research institutions would be exempt under the new proposal.
• The $103,265 would be in addition to other H-1B filing costs.
• DHS estimates the fee could generate approximately $8.8 billion per year.
• The US Chamber of Commerce says the fee could make H-1B hiring cost-prohibitive for many startups and small and midsize employers.

For employers that hire significant numbers of H-1B workers, this could materially change the economics of hiring. A company hiring 10 cap-subject H-1B employees could potentially face more than $1 million in these fees alone.

This is currently a proposed rule, not a fee that has already taken effect. The Bloomberg Law report is dated August 24, 2026.

Something to watch, especially at companies that rely heavily on H-1B hiring.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/new-100-000-h-1b-fee-planned-for-foreign-workers-already-in-us

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-07/zeiss-overhauls-sap-cloud-migration-after-costs-hit-200-million

Is the cost of having Lg1, Lg2, Lg3, Lg4 higher in Mexico City? I heard the company has to provide cars, free health benefits, housing benefits in Mexico while there is no such shi* provided in US of A

Where is the budget coming from for my agent? Now that the official rollout has started, teams are going to be billed. Do people know this? Gonna cost my org an extra 300k/yr at least

Because mine certainly isn't.

Does anyone know how much DXC contributes towards an employee's health insurance - medical/dental/vision? Just a ballpark number.

It doesn't sound like they contribute 80/20 or 70/30 that some of the better performing companies do. I haven't used DXC's plan bcoz my spouse has a good one but was wondering if I had to use what would my cost vs DXC's be; I'm definitely saving DXC some money there right now.

It’s a bad sign that they’re having a whole coffee chat about the cost of care. Who has the pool going for the cost increase for employee benefits for 2027?