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Apple rolled out its newest iPhone app called Invites, which lets iCloud+ subscribers create and share invitations to anyone, regardless of whether they have an Apple account or Apple device. Hosts have control over the events. They can choose what details they want included in the invite preview, like a home address and what image to use as a background. The event page also integrates the Maps and Weather apps so that attendees know how to get there and what the forecast will be. Within an event, attendees can manage RSVPs, contribute to Shared Albums dedicated to specific events, and collaborate on Apple Music playlists. Invites is available on the App Store starting today for iPhone models running iOS 18 or later, and it can also be accessed through the web. Apple’s iCloud+ service starts at 99 cents a month. The launch appears to put the app up against the extremely popular Partiful, a third party event planning event that made Google Play’s Best App of 2024. Partiful, popular among Gen Z, also has simple user interfaces and is free to use. Invites is also competing against other platforms, like Paperless Post and evite. Apple Invites brings together capabilities our users already know and love across iPhone, iCloud, and Apple Music, making it easy to plan special events,” Apple’s Brent Chiu-Watson said in a press release.
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In recent years, pay transparency has grown increasingly common as many states have passed legislation to help arm workers with more data as they enter into salary negotiations. Across 14 states and many more localities, employers are now required to either provide explicit salary ranges in job postings or share that information during the hiring process. That means some of the biggest employers in the country now have to disclose compensation data in states like California and New York. But according to a new report from compensation platform Beqom, despite all this progress, many workers still feel like pay transparency isn’t within reach and that they have little insight into how their compensation is being determined. Of the nearly 2,000 people surveyed, which included workers in both the U.S. and U.K., only 38% said they understood how their compensation was calculated. Over half of respondents also said they believed their performance reviews were subjective, which in turn could impact their compensation. When it comes to pay equity and transparency, many workers said that their employers did not adequately report data on pay disparities: Nearly 60% of U.S. employees said their company did not disclose information on gender-based pay gaps. More than half of workers also believed that their employer was not taking meaningful steps to address those pay gaps. Inflation also continues to be a major concern: Just 40% of respondents in the U.S. said their salaries were adjusted to match inflation in 2024. Wage stagnation was also a source of frustration for all respondents: Almost half of them said their pay had not increased in the last year and cited it as a top concern, alongside a lack of pay transparency. The findings on pay equity also underscore just how halting progress has been on combatting the gender pay gap. While pay transparency laws were intended to help mitigate pay gaps on the basis of race and gender, the data indicates that there has been limited movement on a broader scale: In fact, the gender pay gap actually increased in 2023 for the first time in 20 years, with women earning 83 cents on the dollar compared to men. While wages actually increased overall, men benefitted more than women did. Even as the gap has narrowed over the years, experts have also said it’s unlikely that the gap will disappear altogether due to a combination of factors, from fluctuations in the workforce to the motherhood penalty. But employers do have a role to play in helping women and other underrepresented employees reach parity in the workplace, from conducting pay equity audits to embracing pay transparency whether or not it’s mandated by lawand making sure they demonstrate a commitment to addressing those issues.
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We want grandparents who want to have pizza nights with us, attend baseball and basketball games, have ice cream dates, take bike rides, just genuinely have fun with us and our boys, reads one post on the Facebook group Surrogate Grandparents USA, a place where grandparent-seeking families can connect with surrogate grandparents. One lonely grandma here. I would love to share affection and attention with a nearby family, posted another. Created in 2015 by 68-year-old retired paralegal Donna Skora, Surrogate Grandparents USA now has more than 11,800 members. The page is described as a place where grandparents who are missing having grandchildren in their lives & families whose children are missing having grandparents in their lives, can find and connect with each other for a possible lifetime of love. Here, prospective grandparents across the country offer their services for baking cookies and reading books, while parents can seek out the kind of support and comfort only grandparents can provide. In 2024, 21% of adults in the U.S. reported feeling lonely, with many respondents feeling disconnected from friends, family. While a surrogate family might not be the most conventional set up, at the end of the day, doesnt every family have their unconventionalities? Access to the group is granted by invitation only. Skora reviews each membership request and the groups moderators encourage people to properly vet prospective surrogates before connecting in real life. Short personal ads are then shared on the page, along with locations. If both the surrogate grandparent and the grandparent-seeking party hit it off, messages are exchanged before eventually progressing to meeting up IRL. The reasons people post on the group are as wide-ranging and complex as biological families. Some members of the group have lost loved ones, others have never had families of their own. The site has also expanded to serve foster children who have aged out of the system and are looking for chosen family, as well as helping grandparents who are raising grandchildren full time find respite care. It is also a safe haven for the estranged. Today, around 27% of American adults have cut off contact with a family member, which translates to 68 million people, one of the highest estrangement rates in the world. Skoras experienced this first-hand, becoming estranged from her son and daughter-in-law when her grandson was born. We were totally blacked out of their lives completely, she told reporter Lexi Pandell in a recent interview with Wired. Deciding to launch Surrogate Grandparents USA the same year, Skora connected with a family nearby. As is the case with flesh-and-blood, it is not always happy families. In the end, Skora cut contact when the parents began requesting gifts and trips from her. This is now expressly forbidden in the groups rules. For others, however, the arrangement works well and fills a family-shaped hole. Im not going to live my life being sad, one surrogate grandmother told Wired. There are people out there who want relationships with people like me.
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