Products May 29, 2007

SSgA Announces Five ETFS

May 28, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has announced five new fixed income SPDRs exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Reported by

According to a State Street news release, the five new SPDRs are:

  • The Lehman Brothers 1-3 Month U.S. Treasury Bill Index, which includes all publicly issued zero-coupon U.S. Treasury Bills that have a remaining maturity of less than three months and more than one month, are rated investment grade, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. Expense Ratio: 0.13%.
  • The Barclays US Government Inflation-Linked Index, which includes publicly issued, U.S. Treasury inflation protected securities that have at least one year remaining to maturity on index rebalancing date, with an issue size equal to or exceeding $500 million. Expense Ratio: 0.18%.
  • The Lehman Brothers U.S. Aggregate Index, which provides a measure of the performance of the U.S. dollar denominated investment grade bond market. Expense Ratio: 0.13%.
  • The Lehman Brothers Intermediate U.S. Treasury Index, which includes all publicly issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than 10 years, are rated investment grade, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. Expense Ratio: 0.13%.
  • The Lehman Brothers Long U.S. Treasury Index, which includes all publicly issued, U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of 10 or more years, are rated investment grade, and have $250 million or more in outstanding face value. Expense Ratio: 0.13%.

More information is at  www.ssga.com .

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Compliance May 25, 2007

Minimum Wage Bill Passed

May 25, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - President Bush on Friday signed into law a bill that will provide the first boost to the minimum wage in 10 years, CNS News reports.
Reported by

Congress Thursday approved the measure that will increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour over two years. The minimum wage increase was tacked onto the war funding bill.

According to HR News, t he wage increase will be done in three phases each raising the minimum wage 70 cents per hour. The bill calls for the first boost 60 days after the president signs the measure, and the other increases will follow a year apart to be completed by the summer of 2009.

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The legislation also included $4.84 billion in small business tax breaks over 10 years to help compensate for the wage hike, according to the news reports.

Several pension and retirement-related provisions were also attached to the bill which will increase funding to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and extend the deadline for U.S. airlines to comply with the funding requirements of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA). Sources told HR News some pension-related amendments were technical corrections to the PPA, including one that would change the dates that businesses could elect or be considered to be part of a multi-employer pension plan, and another that altered the wording on how excess pension assets could be transferred to retiree health accounts.

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