Business News Digest

NATION
Poll: White-collar raisesto average 3.7% in '07
NEW YORK -- The pay outlook for 2007 calls for modest raises.
Executive, management, professional and office workers will get average raises of 3.7 percent, and workers in trades, production and service can expect raises of 3.6 percent, according to a survey of 227 large and midsized employers by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
The big bucks will go to top performers. The top 12.8 percent of workers will get average pay increases of 5.4 percent; the next highest 26.1 percent will get average raises of 4.4 percent and the middle-rated 52.9 percent will get raises of 3.3 percent. The lowest rated 2.9 percent will average pay increases of 1.4 percent.
Shareholders approveAramark buyout bid
PHILADELPHIA -- Aramark Corp., the nation's largest food service company, will be taken private for the second time in 22 years after shareholders on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a 6.3 billion leveraged buyout bid.
It will also be the second time long-running Chief Executive Joseph Neubauer leads an investment group to take Aramark private. The first was in 1984, to thwart a hostile takeover from corporate raiders.
Associated Press