Amazon is dialing up the pressure on corporate employees who haven’t complied with the company’s return-to-office mandate. 

Staffers who don’t adhere to the policy, which requires employees to be in the office at least three days a week, may not get promoted, according to posts on Amazon’s internal website that were viewed by CNBC.

“Managers own the promotion process, which means it is their responsibility to support your growth through regular conversations and stretch assignments, and to complete all the required inputs for a promotion,” one post says. “If your role is expected to work from the office 3+ days a week and you are not in compliance, your manager will be made aware and VP approval will be required.”

A separate post on Amazon’s internal career platform for employees says, “In accordance with Amazon’s overall approach to promotions, employees are expected to work from their office 3+ days/week if that is the requirement of their role.”

The post goes on to say that managers are working with Amazon’s human resources group to “monitor adherence” to the in-person work requirement, and “this will continue as we evaluate promotion readiness.”

Some details of the new guidance were previously reported by Business Insider.

Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, confirmed the announcement in an email.

“Promotions are one of the many ways we support employees’ growth and development, and there are a variety of factors we consider when determining an employee’s readiness for the next level,” Glasser told CNBC. “Like any company, we expect employees who are being considered for promotion to be in compliance with company guidelines and policies.”

Tensions have flared between Amazon and some of its roughly 350,000 corporate employees since the company began its return-to-office push. In May, the company began requiring that staffers work out of physical offices at least three days a week, shifting from a Covid-era policy that left it up to individual managers to decide how often team members should be present.

Following the mandate, a group of employees walked out in protest at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Staffers also criticized how Amazon handled the decision to lay off 27,000 people as part of job cuts that began last year.

Employees circulated an internal petition urging CEO Andy Jassy to drop the return-to-office requirement, but the company hasn’t budged. In recent months, Amazon informed some staffers they must relocate to central office hubs in different states if they want to keep their jobs, prompting some to quit, CNBC previously reported. 

Amazon’s stance has changed multiple times since the start of the pandemic in 2020. At first, the company said it would return to an “office-centric culture as our baseline.” But as other tech companies leaned toward more flexible work arrangements, Amazon relaxed its position.

The company later announced the RTO mandate, which CEO Andy Jassy said would lead to a stronger company culture and collaboration between employees. Amazon has a remote work exception in place and considers requests on a case-by-case basis.

“Teams tend to be better connected to one another when they see each other in person more frequently,” Jassy said at the time. “There is something about being face-to-face with somebody, looking them in the eye, and seeing they’re fully immersed in whatever you’re discussing that bonds people together.”

Sam Altman has joined Microsoft to lead a new artificial intelligence project, the tech giant said early Monday, after he was ousted as CEO of OpenAI in a move that sent shockwaves across Silicon Valley.

As rumors swirled that Altman could return after a weekend of boardroom drama, Microsoft announced he would join them instead and Emmett Shear, a co-founder and former CEO of the video streaming platform Twitch, confirmed that he would be the new CEO of OpenAI.

The chairman and CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, announced the Altman hire on X just before 3 a.m. ET, more than 48 hours after OpenAI’s board of directors said they “no longer had confidence” in Altman — a leading figure in the tech industry’s efforts to grapple with the promise and potential dangers of AI.

Microsoft is a major financial backer of OpenAI, one of the world’s hottest startups, and has invested billions since its first funding deal in 2019. Since then OpenAI has become the most visible of a new generation of AI companies — its ChatGPT, a large language model chatbot, is widely used and has become a symbol of everyday AI innovation.

Nadella said Microsoft was still committed to supporting OpenAI, which now has a new leadership team, while confirming that Altman will lead a ‘new advanced AI research team,’ alongside OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who was ousted as its president on Friday.

‘We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success,’ Nadella said.

Altman reshared the post, adding: ‘The mission continues.’

OpenAI said it cut ties with him after a review found he was ‘not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.’

Brockman said on Friday in a post to X that he and Altman were ‘shocked and saddened’ by the board’s decision, but added ‘greater things coming soon.’

CNBC reported on Sunday that some OpenAI investors were pushing for Altman to be brought back, after chief technology officer Mira Murati was named interim CEO.

But Shear confirmed on X early Monday that he would instead be leading OpenAI.

He laid out a plan for his first 30 days, including hiring an independent investigator ‘to dig into the entire process leading up to this point and generate a full report.’

Shear said that ‘OpenAI’s stability and success are too important to allow turmoil to disrupt them like this,’ adding that ‘I have nothing but respect for what Sam and the entire OpenAI team have built.’

OpenAI was this year ranked number 1 in CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list of the most impressive and fastest-growing private companies. The company rose to prominence in 2022 when it released ChatGPT to the public, allowing people to generate complex and detailed responses to simple text questions and prompts.

This year’s post-pandemic travel boom is continuing into the holidays.

Nearly half (48%) of Americans plan to travel between Thanksgiving and mid-January, up from 31% last winter, a recent Deloitte survey found. AAA expects 55.4 million travelers to venture at least 50 miles from home during the Thanksgiving period alone, a 2.3% increase from last year.

That means if you’re hitting the roads or the slopes this season, you’ll have lots of company. Here’s what to expect as you pack your bags for a winter getaway or to visit loved ones.

Airline ticket prices are falling even as more Americans intend to fly.

Deloitte found 33% of holiday travelers plan to take a domestic flight, up from 29% last year. Despite the strong demand, airfares were more than 13% cheaper last month than at same time a year ago, federal inflation data shows.

Domestic tickets are expected to be noticeably cheaper this season. Round-trip flights within the United States are set to average $268 during Thanksgiving (an annual decline of 14%) and $400 around Christmas (down 12%), according to the booking platform Hopper.

It’s more of a mixed picture for foreign getaways, for which Deloitte foresees softer demand.

Hopper expects international airfares to ease over the Thanksgiving holiday versus last year, but popular destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean are set to stay 5% to 11% higher than before the pandemic. And global flights around Christmastime are generally expected to stay elevated, according to Hopper, “with fares to all destinations outside the Caribbean and Oceania higher than 2019 and 2022 prices.”

Airlines and aviation officials sound confident about handling the holiday crush. While major U.S. carriers — including American, Delta and United — expect record passenger numbers this Thanksgiving, many are touting their readiness for the season.

“We are now so much better prepared for these extreme weather events,” Southwest’s chief operating officer, Andrew Watterson, told investors on a recent earnings call, referring to the carrier’s holiday meltdown last December.

American Airlines is reassuring customers that it “has been running the most reliable operation of any U.S. network carrier for the past 14 months.” And United unveiled a new boarding process last month that it says should speed up the process.

Track records for flight cancellations and missing luggage have improved ahead of the holidays. About 1.7% of flights were canceled during the first eight months of this year, much better than the 3.0% rate for the same eight-month period last year and 2.3% in the comparable stretch of 2019, the Department of Transportation reported. And in August, the latest month with available data, the mishandled baggage rate dropped to 0.61% from 0.75% the month before.

A broader push to streamline and automate operations “will continue to help curb mishandling as we approach the holiday season,” said Nicole Hogg, head of baggage for SITA, an air transport IT company. But travel experts still suggest adding an AirTag or other digital tracking device to your luggage, especially during busy travel periods.

“Mother Nature will cause some number of cancellations, guaranteed,” said Scott Keyes, the founder of the airfare tracking site Going. But he noted that “cancellations caused by the airlines — the most galling for travelers — are at multiyear lows” and added that many carriers have bulked up on pilots, planes and staff.

“The entire industry was snakebit from last year’s debacle,” Keyes said, “and airlines have adjusted their operations accordingly.”

More holiday travelers are set to book rooms than exclusively bunk with friends or family this year. Deloitte found 56% plan to stay in hotels, a sharp jump from 35% in 2022.

That could push up room rates, which were already 0.8% pricier in October than the year before. Jan Freitag, director of hospitality analytics at the commercial real-estate research company CoStar, said this season’s strong travel numbers will likely nudge Christmastime room rates above last year’s levels. In the first full week of November, they were up 4% in the U.S. from the same week a year ago, averaging $156 per night, CoStar said.

Price-conscious Christmas travelers might want to “book early to lock in lower rates, shorten their trips or trade down to a different class of service,” said Freitag, or else take their chances with last-minute reservations. Inventories will be slimmer in the eleventh hour, but hotels may still cut prices on unsold rooms.

Baby boomers, who represented just 21% of those traveling during the holidays in 2022, are expected to make up 29% of travelers this year, Deloitte projects.

“Last year, older Americans were more likely to cite potential travel disruption and health as reasons to avoid travel,” said Steve Rogers, managing director of Deloitte’s Consumer Industry Center. “But this year, inflation, health and travel disruption concerns may have eased, and boomers are making up for lost trips.”

Gen X travelers will also comprise a greater share of holiday travelers, Deloitte said, growing from 26% last year to an expected 29% this season. Millennial and Gen Z travelers, by contrast, are expected to fall back a bit — with millennials going from 36% of holiday travelers last year to 31% this year, and Gen Zers from 14% to just 8%.

How much each age group shells out over the holidays remains to be seen. The market research firm Future Partners found in a survey last month that boomers tend to have bigger full-year travel budgets — of around $4,408, above the $3,785 national average. However, PwC expects older travelers to trim their holiday travel spending by 22% since last year, partly so they can take more trips throughout the year.

“On the flip side,” said Jonathan Kletzel, PwC’s airline and travel practice leader, “Gen Z is making the biggest increase in their [holiday] travel spending, landing around 23% higher than last year.”

This year 75% of holiday travelers plan to use credit cards to cover at least part of their expenses, according to a recent NerdWallet/Harris Poll survey, even though about 8% of those who charged holiday travel costs last year are still paying them off.

Americans have piled on credit card debt this year even as rates have surged. But stiffer interest fees appear to be making some holiday travelers a bit more cautious than last year, when 85% put at least some holiday travel costs on plastic, NerdWallet found.

“One way travelers are finding balance between the experiences they want and an increase in costs is through points and customer loyalty programs,” said Kletzel.

A Morning Consul report this month backed that up, showing across-the-board jumps in consumers planning to use rewards for bookings at hotels, travel companies and airlines this season. The share of those making points-based travel reservations through credit card programs rose 13% this Thanksgiving from last year and 9% for the winter holidays.

“A lot of people are sitting on more credit card rewards and/or hotel points than they realize, and about a quarter didn’t redeem any over the past year,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate. And because travel points typically don’t gain value once netted, he said, “it makes sense to earn and burn rewards strategically.”

T-Mobile is once again being accused of failing to protect sensitive consumer data after an employee at one of its retail stores stole nude images from a customer’s phone when she came to trade in an old device, according to a lawsuit filed Friday. 

The incident is similar to at least eight others levied against T-Mobile in the past, according to court records and news reports. The lawsuit comes as wireless companies and other tech giants face increasing pressure from lawmakers to do more to protect customer data. 

The suit, filed in Washington state court, accuses T-Mobile of failing to properly train its retail workers and “turning a blind eye” when employees use their access to steal customer data under the guise they’re helping them with repairs and data transfers.

“For almost a decade, T-Mobile customers across the United States have regularly reported, evidenced by news stories and lawsuits, instances of retail store employees stealing their intimate videos, explicit photos, and bank accounts,” the suit charges. “Nevertheless, T-Mobile has failed to implement any common-sense security hardware or software to protect consumers from their data and privacy being exploited during ordinary transactions at the T-Mobile store.”

T-Mobile didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The victim, who is only referred to as “Jane Doe” in the complaint, states she went to a T-Mobile store at the Columbia Center Mall, about 200 miles southeast of Seattle, last October to upgrade her iPhone XS Max to an iPhone 14 Pro Max. While there, she handed the old device off to an employee so he could transfer her data to the new device. 

While the worker had the phone, he found nude images of the victim and a video of her having sex with her partner on the camera roll of the XS Max and sent it to himself on Snapchat, the lawsuit states.  

Once the transaction was finished, Jane assumed her data was wiped from the old phone until later that evening, when she checked her Snapchat and saw that the images had been sent to an unknown account, which police later traced back to the T-Mobile employee.

“Anxious and concerned, Jane hastily returned to the T-Mobile store with her mother to speak to the store manager,” the lawsuit states. “During this time, while Jane was seeking assistance at the T-Mobile store, the unauthorized person continued to log into her social media accounts on the iPhone XS Max.” 

At first, staff claimed there had been no trade-ins that day, but with help from mall security and local police, Jane’s old phone was found in the back room. 

“Rather than helping Jane out in the face of the sexual privacy crime, the T-Mobile manager said if Jane wanted access back to the old device that had been weaponized against her, Jane would need to pay them the amount that they had discounted her for the trade-in,” the lawsuit states. “Jane’s mother on Jane’s behalf surrendered and paid the amount.” 

The employee was later charged with first degree computer trespass, a felony, and disclosing intimate images, which is a crime in most states, according to the lawsuit. He pleaded guilty last month, the suit says. 

The lawsuit was filed by Carrie Goldberg and Laura Hecht-Felella at the New York-based C.A. Goldberg firm and Emma Aubrey from the Washington-based Redmond Law Firm. 

Goldberg, who frequently takes on tech giants for failing to protect consumers, called her latest suit a “classic case of a gargantuan company” chalking off customer injury as a cost of doing business. 

“T-Mobile has long known that its negligent hiring and absent consumer safety policies will result in at least some of its customers becoming sexually exploited,” Goldberg told CNBC.

“T-Mobile has big incentive programs to induce customers to upgrade their devices and turn in their old ones. But the ugly truth is that T-Mobile knows that employees sometimes steal customers’ most intimate images and videos from the old devices they relinquish,” Goldberg added. “This case shows that nobody should feel their privacy is safe at T-Mobile.”

DETROIT — General Motors union workers ratified a record deal with the United Auto Workers after a contentious final few days of voting, according to results posted Thursday morning by the union.

Much like the negotiations themselves, voting was not as smooth as many thought it would be. A majority of the Detroit automaker’s large assembly plants rejected the pact, however it wasn’t enough to offset support at smaller facilities and a handful of other assembly plants.

Ratification of the deal came under doubt Wednesday morning, after seven of GM’s 11 U.S. assembly plants rejected the pact. But a swing in voting results in favor of the deal, specifically at a SUV plant in Texas, gave the agreement a much needed lifeline.

According to the UAW’s vote tracker, the deal was supported by 54.7% of the nearly 36,000 autoworkers at GM who voted. The vote total was 19,683 in support versus 16,275 against — a margin of 3,409 votes.

Both the UAW and GM declined to comment on the results until they’ve been finalized.

Voting on similar contracts at Ford Motor and Chrysler-parent Stellantis is ongoing, with support of roughly 67% of unionized workers at each automaker who voted as of Thursday morning, according to the union. Barring any major shifts or swing in turnouts, those deals are likely to pass.

GM’s voting was closer, in part, due to the demographics of the company’s workforce. The automaker has the highest number of traditional workers on a percentage basis compared to its crosstown rivals. Such workers have voiced disapproval for the wage increases granted to them by the deals, compared to those offered to newer hires. They were also dissatisfied with pension contributions and retirement benefits.

For the union and UAW President Shawn Fain, the deals represent significant economic gains. They include 25% pay increases; a path to secure future jobs for union ranks such as battery plants; and a springboard for organizing efforts at other non-union automakers operating in the U.S. — a main goal of Fain moving forward.

For the companies as well as their investors, the contracts represent the top-end of forecasted increases in labor costs. While the automakers several times called foul on the union’s tactics, including six weeks of targeted strikes, they should be able to stomach the cost increases. That’s not to say they won’t be seeking offsets to the increases elsewhere in the forms of future investments, restructuring and other means.

Ford CFO John Lawler last month said the UAW deal, if ratified by members, would add $850 to $900 in costs per vehicle assembled. He said Ford will work to “find productivity and efficiencies and cost reductions throughout the company” to offset the additional costs and deliver on previously announced profitability targets.

Beer giant Anheuser-Busch says its head of U.S. marketing is leaving, months after its Bud Light brand lost its position as the top beer brand in the country.

The company said U.S. Chief Marketing Officer Benoit Garbe will leave at the end of 2023 “in order to embark on a new chapter in his career,” with U.S. Chief Commercial Officer Kyle Norrington taking charge of marketing activities.

The company said other sales leaders will report directly to Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth.

“These senior leadership changes will accelerate our return to growth as we continue to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter,” Whitworth said in an emailed statement.

He also said the changes would reduce layers of management.

Bud Light lost its U.S. leadership title to Modelo Especial over the summer. Sales of the brand have been falling for years while Modelo’s parent, Constellation Brands, gained steam and marketed itself more successfully to younger beer drinkers.

Bud Light was also the target of a sharp backlash after it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April for a sponsored Instagram post that ran the weekend of the NCAA basketball men’s and women’s national championships.

Conservative politicians and influencers said they would boycott the brand in response and shared videos of themselves throwing the beer away, pouring it out, or shooting cans.

“Add a tip?”

The prompts have become ubiquitous in all kinds of sales situations — from ordering a coffee to paying for a packaged sandwich — as digital card readers proliferate. But while automated requests for gratuities continue to spur confusion and grumbling, recent data suggests consumers have no trouble breezing past them.

Many people first started noticing so-called tipflation as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Venturing out again to bars, restaurants and shops, consumers were confronted with what felt like a new set of etiquette expectations — and duly began tipping more often, even as many griped loudly about it. But those upticks were modest and far from universal, and some of shoppers’ generosity now looks to be waning.

In a survey released this month by the Pew Research Center, 72% of American adults said tipping is now expected in more places than it was five years ago — but that’s pretty much all consumers can agree on when it comes to tipping.

Many dislike it when the tablets they’re presented suggest specific gratuity amounts; 40% oppose the prompts, while just 24% favor them, according to Pew.

But when consumers are left to their own devices, they take widely different approaches to deciding how much extra to offer and when to offer it, if at all. While 78% of respondents told Pew they always or often tip for haircuts, just 61% said the same of tipping their taxi or ride-hailing drivers. And only 1 in 4 reported frequently tipping baristas.

Americans can’t even agree on whether adding a tip is more of a choice or an obligation: 21% see it the first way and 29% the latter, with the remaining 49% landing somewhere in the squishy middle, saying it depends on the situation.

It’s no surprise consumers are so divided and exasperated, said Deidre Popovich, a Texas Tech University professor of marketing and supply chain management who specializes in consumer behavior.

“I think there’s just too many prompts now in the marketplace with these automated payment systems,” she said. “We’re used to tipping when we can evaluate the service, and in a lot of these situations, there’s no service tied to the tip. What do we do?”

There has been some movement at the margins of Americans’ gratuity habits.

NBC News reported in February that tipping frequency was up, possibly reflecting a pandemic hangover of good vibes toward service workers when expanding point-of-sale systems made it easier for businesses to solicit tips.

The payments processor Square, which makes a popular point-of-sale platform, said the restaurant and retail workers who use its software have seen increases in tipped and overtime earnings. But the company noted that the rises have tracked broader wage increases and higher restaurant menu prices.

“We’ve definitely observed a slight increase in tipping over the last few years,” said Ara Kharazian, the research lead at Square. “But I think it’s a lot more modest than people realize, and it’s starting to slow down a lot.”

For example, the average overall earnings for restaurant workers using Square were $17.67 an hour in October, with a base wage of $13.80. That $3.87 difference, which mostly reflects tips, is only about 60 cents higher than it was in October 2021, according to the company’s payroll index.

As consumers get used to seeing tip prompts in more places more regularly, they may be getting more comfortable ignoring them — especially after having dealt with inflation-related sticker shock for many goods and services over the past year.

Lightspeed, another POS provider, said customers add tips on just 1.3% of in-store transactions at the retailers that have enabled its tipping feature.

While tip levels in some settings have held steady or inched higher, others are declining.

Lightspeed said the median tip at all types of restaurants using its service increased from 16.9% in the second quarter last year to 17.3% in the same period this year. But tip amounts for online orders and delivery — for which patrons can decide privately whether to tip, without service workers nearby — have dipped since last year, from about 8.8% to 8.1%.

Another point-of-sale platform, Toast, said in September that average tips at full-service restaurants declined from 19.7% in the first quarter this year to 19.4% in the second — the lowest level for that category since the start of the pandemic. Gratuities at quick-service restaurants using Toast barely ticked up to 16.1% from 16.0% over the same period.

A Bankrate survey this year found tipping frequency has continued a multiyear downslide virtually across the board. The shares of Americans who say they always tip in service transactions from food delivery to hotel housekeeping have steadily shrunk. That’s the case even at sit-down restaurants, where those who reported always tipping their servers fell from 75% in 2021 to 65% this spring.

Some companies are trying other ways to nudge customers to tip. DoorDash wrote in a blog post this month that it was testing an in-app pop-up in the U.S. and Canada to remind users of its delivery service to leave gratuities, lest they risk longer waits.

“Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered,” the test prompt reads. “Are you sure you want to continue?”

“Add a tip?”

The prompts have become ubiquitous in all kinds of sales situations — from ordering a coffee to paying for a packaged sandwich — as digital card readers proliferate. But while automated requests for gratuities continue to spur confusion and grumbling, recent data suggests consumers have no trouble breezing past them.

Many people first started noticing so-called tipflation as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Venturing out again to bars, restaurants and shops, consumers were confronted with what felt like a new set of etiquette expectations — and duly began tipping more often, even as many griped loudly about it. But those upticks were modest and far from universal, and some of shoppers’ generosity now looks to be waning.

In a survey released this month by the Pew Research Center, 72% of American adults said tipping is now expected in more places than it was five years ago — but that’s pretty much all consumers can agree on when it comes to tipping.

Many dislike it when the tablets they’re presented suggest specific gratuity amounts; 40% oppose the prompts, while just 24% favor them, according to Pew.

But when consumers are left to their own devices, they take widely different approaches to deciding how much extra to offer and when to offer it, if at all. While 78% of respondents told Pew they always or often tip for haircuts, just 61% said the same of tipping their taxi or ride-hailing drivers. And only 1 in 4 reported frequently tipping baristas.

Americans can’t even agree on whether adding a tip is more of a choice or an obligation: 21% see it the first way and 29% the latter, with the remaining 49% landing somewhere in the squishy middle, saying it depends on the situation.

It’s no surprise consumers are so divided and exasperated, said Deidre Popovich, a Texas Tech University professor of marketing and supply chain management who specializes in consumer behavior.

“I think there’s just too many prompts now in the marketplace with these automated payment systems,” she said. “We’re used to tipping when we can evaluate the service, and in a lot of these situations, there’s no service tied to the tip. What do we do?”

There has been some movement at the margins of Americans’ gratuity habits.

NBC News reported in February that tipping frequency was up, possibly reflecting a pandemic hangover of good vibes toward service workers when expanding point-of-sale systems made it easier for businesses to solicit tips.

The payments processor Square, which makes a popular point-of-sale platform, said the restaurant and retail workers who use its software have seen increases in tipped and overtime earnings. But the company noted that the rises have tracked broader wage increases and higher restaurant menu prices.

“We’ve definitely observed a slight increase in tipping over the last few years,” said Ara Kharazian, the research lead at Square. “But I think it’s a lot more modest than people realize, and it’s starting to slow down a lot.”

For example, the average overall earnings for restaurant workers using Square were $17.67 an hour in October, with a base wage of $13.80. That $3.87 difference, which mostly reflects tips, is only about 60 cents higher than it was in October 2021, according to the company’s payroll index.

As consumers get used to seeing tip prompts in more places more regularly, they may be getting more comfortable ignoring them — especially after having dealt with inflation-related sticker shock for many goods and services over the past year.

Lightspeed, another POS provider, said customers add tips on just 1.3% of in-store transactions at the retailers that have enabled its tipping feature.

While tip levels in some settings have held steady or inched higher, others are declining.

Lightspeed said the median tip at all types of restaurants using its service increased from 16.9% in the second quarter last year to 17.3% in the same period this year. But tip amounts for online orders and delivery — for which patrons can decide privately whether to tip, without service workers nearby — have dipped since last year, from about 8.8% to 8.1%.

Another point-of-sale platform, Toast, said in September that average tips at full-service restaurants declined from 19.7% in the first quarter this year to 19.4% in the second — the lowest level for that category since the start of the pandemic. Gratuities at quick-service restaurants using Toast barely ticked up to 16.1% from 16.0% over the same period.

A Bankrate survey this year found tipping frequency has continued a multiyear downslide virtually across the board. The shares of Americans who say they always tip in service transactions from food delivery to hotel housekeeping have steadily shrunk. That’s the case even at sit-down restaurants, where those who reported always tipping their servers fell from 75% in 2021 to 65% this spring.

Some companies are trying other ways to nudge customers to tip. DoorDash wrote in a blog post this month that it was testing an in-app pop-up in the U.S. and Canada to remind users of its delivery service to leave gratuities, lest they risk longer waits.

“Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered,” the test prompt reads. “Are you sure you want to continue?”

Union members at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors have ratified a new 4½-year contract, locking in at 11% pay increases secured after a six-week strike in September and October.

The United Auto Workers said that roughly 67% of Ford employees represented by the UAW voted in favor of the contract, which will last through April 30, 2028.

Voting officially ends Friday, but with around 57,000 union employees at Ford, the contract appeared headed toward easy ratification.

The contracts were negotiated after members of the UAW went on strike from Sept. 15 until late October.

Union members will get a total pay increase of 25% over the course of the deal. The new contracts also reinstate cost-of-living adjustments, let workers reach top wages in three years instead of eight and protect their right to strike over plant closures.

Both the UAW and the carmakers described the deals as “record” contracts based on those pay increases. The union also said members were regaining some of the benefits they agreed to give up after the Great Recession to help keep the automakers alive.

Workers at GM approved the contract, but they did so by a much narrower margin than Ford’s employees did, with about 55% of workers voting yes.

While UAW President Shawn Fain has called the contacts a victory for workers, he has also said they are part of a larger plan to win back more benefits over the long haul.

According to the UAW’s ratification vote tracker, Stellantis employees were on pace to approve the deal at margins similar to Ford workers. With 17,391 votes tallied as of Thursday evening ET, about 66% of ballots had been cast in favor of accepting the contract.

While the general terms of the contracts are similar, workers at Detroit’s Big Three automakers are voting to accept or reject them independently.

Halloween is done, scary season is ending, and the horrors of the housing market are getting more gentle — if only a little bit.

Mortgage rates are coming down slightly after a dramatic rise. The government-backed mortgage company Fannie Mae says the interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was down to 6.73% on Thursday. It peaked at more than 8% in mid-October.

Since rates have come down, demand for mortgages is starting to tick higher. It’s a modest increase, as the Mortgage Bankers Association says demand in early November was 12% lower than the same time in 2022.

Borrowing costs for mortgages are at two-decade highs, but prices have continued to rise because so few houses are on the market. That’s put home ownership out of reach for large numbers of people.

The situation has changed because investors are becoming convinced that the Federal Reserve might really be done raising rates. It has raised its benchmark interest rate from near-zero in early 2022 to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% by July, and mortgage rates, along with interest rates on auto loans, credit cards and other financial products, moved higher in tandem.

The gap between typical interest rates and mortgage rates also got unusually large.

While the Fed hasn’t raised interest rates in more than three months, mortgage rates had continued to rise because investors thought the central bank was likely to keep raising them in the future.

But there are signs inflation is continuing to fade, and that the Fed might be satisfied with the progress it’s made in getting price gains under control. That’s let mortgage rates stabilize and start to come down

However, over the longer term, lower mortgage rates might not make houses more affordable, as home prices tend to rise when mortgage rates go down precisely because buyers have an easier time borrowing money.