BUSINESS DIGEST || Paychecks show little sign of growth

Paychecks show little sign of growth

WASHINGTON

U.S. paychecks increased moderately in the final three months of last year, yet the gain was little changed from the sluggish post-recession trend.

The employment cost index, which tracks wages and benefits, rose 0.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the Labor Department said. That’s the same as the previous three months.

In the past year, salaries and benefits have risen 2 percent, the same annual pace as the previous two quarters. That is below the roughly 3.5 percent rate that is consistent with a healthy economy.

Caterpillar to close 5 plants, cut 670 jobs

Caterpillar says it plans to close five plants, causing a net reduction of about 670 jobs in Illinois and several other states, as part of a broader cost-cutting campaign announced last year.

The mining- and construction-equipment company will cut about 230 jobs for office and production workers at a major manufacturing campus in East Peoria, Ill., where Caterpillar says it’s consolidating some manufacturing and transferring some work to outside contractors. An additional 120 employees there will be placed on indefinite layoff.

Court: Chemicals at plant caused cancer

SEOUL, South Korea

A court said Friday that exposure to carcinogens at a Samsung chip factory caused a worker’s ovarian cancer in the first ruling in South Korea to link the disease with chemicals that chip workers were exposed to.

The Seoul Administrative Court said it saw a “significant causal relationship” between the disease and even a low level of toxic chemicals because the worker Lee Eun-joo was exposed to carcinogens over a long period.

Lee died in 2012. She worked at a Samsung chip factory for six years since 1993 when she was 17.

Associated Press