Compliance July 9, 2009

Borzi EBSA Nomination Approved by Senate

The U.S. Senate has approved the nomination of Phyllis Borzi as assistant secretary of labor for the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).
Reported by

The Congressional Record said the U.S. Senate approved the nomination July 10. The nomination passed the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee by voice vote last week.

According to a White House announcement in March, when she was tapped for the job (see “Obama Nominates Assistant Labor Secretary, EBSA“), Borzi is currently a research professor in the Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services at The George Washington University Medical Center, where she is involved in research and policy analysis involving employee benefit plans, the uninsured, managed care, and legal barriers to the development of health information technology.

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She is also affiliated with Washington, D.C.-based law firm O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue. Borzi specializes in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and other legal areas affecting employee benefit plans, including pensions and retirement savings, health plans, and discrimination based on age or disability.

Data & Research July 8, 2009

U.S. Looks More Pricey

U.S. cities climb on the list of most expensive places to live, according to Mercer’s annual Cost of Living survey.
Reported by

Due to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, all cities in the U.S. have experienced a rise in this year’s ranking, Mercer found. New York remains the highest-ranking city in the country, jumping from 22nd to eighth place. Los Angeles is up 32 places to 23rd and Washington, D.C., is up 41 places to 66th.

Other U.S. cities with significant changes in ranking this year include:

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  • White Plains, New York (moving from 89th to 31st place)
  • San Francisco (78th to 34th)
  • Honolulu (77th to 41st)
  • Miami (75th to 45th)
  • Chicago (84th to 50th)
  • Boston (99th to 60th)
  • Houston (98th to 63rd)
  • Atlanta (109th to 75th).


Asian and European cities still dominate the top 10:

  1. Tokyo, Japan
  2. Osaka, Japan
  3. Moscow, Russia
  4. Geneva, Switerzerland
  5. Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  6. Zurich, Switerzerland
  7. Copenhagen, Denmark
  8. New York City, United States
  9. Beijing, Chine
  10. Singapore, Singapore


In Mercer’s survey, New York is used as the base city for the index and scores 100 points. All cities are compared against New York and currency movements are measured against the U.S. dollar. The survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods, and entertainment. More information is available here.

 

 

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