FedEx, UPS, plan to pay less on Sundays; more ads — coming up next, and other news

The news professionals are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation on today's stories in the comments. 

FedEx and UPS intend to pay drivers making deliveries on Sundays “a much lower rate than those who drive during the week,” says The Wall Street Journal. The delivery giants will lean on agreements with the U.S. Postal Service and its “lower-paid army of delivery drivers” to staff part of the Sunday expansion. Fedex will also use its ground crew, an independent-contractor model where drivers make less than weekday Express drivers and UPS will utilize the “lower-paid” tier of its workforce. Both begin Sunday deliveries in January. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Cable networks redressing the shortfall created by dwindling audience numbers are “stuffing more ads into every hour of television,” says Bloomberg. Although cable networks have long pledged to trim down on-air ad counts, the portion of broadcasts devoted to commercials consistently continues to rise, and climbed another 1% in the last quarter. With consumers abandoning cable TV and switching to streaming services, companies find that to maintain advertising revenue, they must hike up prices, or squeeze in more commercials. Many are doing a little of both. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Walmart will not make changes to its gun policy following a mass shooting at its store in El Paso, Texas, in which 20 people were killed and 26 injured. The retailer already goes "beyond federal law," according to a company spokesman, requiring background checks before purchasing firearms. Walmart raised the age of gun sales to 21, from 18, after last year’s Parkland, Florida, shooting and had stopped selling semi-automatic rifles in 2015. The El Paso attack was one of two over the weekend; early Sunday, nine were killed in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Industries that have enjoyed a run of near-uninterrupted profits over the past decade now have some employees demanding their fair share. With wage growth failing to keep pace with the cost of living or the increase in productivity, unions say workers deserve a larger slice of the pie. Yet instead, they say, companies are ploughing their gains back into their own stocks. In the first quarter, S&P 500 companies spent $205.8 billion on buybacks, a record amount surpassed only by the previous quarter. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Whether you get two weeks or eight months of parental leave, going back to work after having a baby can be an emotional rollercoaster. In order to ease this transition, the Harvard Business Review offers some guidelines. They recommend not making any rash decisions in the first two weeks when emotions will be running high. A mid-week start allows for a guaranteed shorter first week. Doing a dress rehearsal for what the work day would look like can help get you into gear. Keep the lines of communication with bosses open and honest, and consider joining a parental work group for support. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Idea of the Day: “When you really stop having fun then it’s time to change what you do,” advises Mauro Porcini, SVP & Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo.

“Own your own destiny like a sailing boat and steer it where the wind of happiness takes you. You need to understand when the wind is about to change and make the right adjustment early on.”

What's your take on today’s stories? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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