Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, has agreed to pay up to $640 million to settle dozens of lawsuits claiming the retailer cheated hourly workers out of pay.

Companies are willing to pay higher wages in order to ensure that workers remain committed and contribute their best efforts to maximize productivity levels, according to a study in the International Journal of Economic Theory published by Wiley-Blackwell. An increase in unemployment insurance, while implying higher wages, is nevertheless beneficial to long term economic activity.

Worker productivity in the U.S. rebounded, growing at the fastest pace in nearly two years in the spring while wage pressures eased sharply, developments that should reduce inflation worries.

Foreign-born Latino workers made notable progress between 1995 and 2005 when ranked by hourly wage. The proportion of foreign-born Latino workers in the lowest quintile of the wage distribution decreased to 36% from 42% while many workers moved into the middle quintiles, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center.