Checks out.

Wages and salaries got their biggest bump in at least 20 years last quarter, the Labor Department said. Pay surged 1.5% in Q3 and benefits grew 0.9%, both much higher than the pace in Q2.

What that’s telling us: Companies are writing bigger checks to attract workers in this topsy-turvy labor market. With 10.4 million open jobs as of August, America’s workers have rarely been in a better position to command higher salaries.

Who is seeing a pay increase?

Many of the wage gains have been captured by lower-income workers in sectors like retail.

• This week, Costco said it was raising its minimum wage to $17 an hour and Starbucks said it was raising its starting rate to $15/hour.
• Walmart, the largest private employer in the US, now pays its workers an average hourly wage of $16.40.

Perhaps there’s no better example of companies spending more on workers than  Amazon. The company said Thursday that additional pay added $1 billion to its costs last quarter, when it hiked wages up to $22.50 an hour in some locations and dangled bonuses of $3,000.

There is a downside to higher pay: inflation. When companies have to pay more for workers, they tend to pass on those extra costs to customers in the form of higher prices. And when companies have to pay more for higher-wage workers, which is increasingly happening, the chance of passing this on to customers rises even more.

The inflation measure most closely watched by the Fed rose at the fastest pace in 30 years in September. US economic officials maintain that inflation will recede, but pressure is growing on the central bank to raise rates to cool off prices.—NF

About 25,000 officials from 120 different countries will arrive in rainy Glasgow, Scotland, this weekend for COP26, the UN’s three-decade-old annual climate summit. Government officials including President Biden, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a whole bunch of climate activists will kick off two weeks of negotiations in what’s being billed as the most pivotal climate talks...maybe ever.

What’s on the agenda? Discussions will focus on chipping away at national targets for greenhouse gas emissions so that the rise in global temperatures stays below 1.5 degrees Celsius, per the framework introduced by the Paris Agreement.

• Scientists say that for temps to stay under that number, the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% before 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
• However, a new UN-backed climate report said countries’ plans to keep producing fossil fuels means they’re “dangerously out of sync” with the Paris target.

Zoom out: Organizers got a little rusty after so many Zoom events and didn’t prep enough accommodations for everyone attending. Some Airbnbs near the conference are priced around $10k for two weeks, making the conference inaccessible for anyone without a hefty travel budget.—MM

Respected architect Dennis McFadden recently resigned from his post at the University of California, Santa Barbara, because the new dorm UCSB is constructing is “unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent, and a human being.”

What McFadden calls a “social and psychological experiment” is the brainchild of 97-year-old billionaire Charlie Munger. The Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman and Warren Buffett’s BFF donated $200 million for the dorm...with the stipulation that his blueprints be followed exactly. But those blueprints are wacky:

• Housing 4,500 students in 1.68 million square feet, the building would be the world’s most populous dorm and the eighth-densest neighborhood globally.
• But it would have just two exits, and 94% of students wouldn't have windows.

Wth, why? Munger—who is not a trained architect but has designed other university and residential buildings for funzies—envisions Munger Hall, as he named it, creating a “close-knit” living experience for undergrads.

“Everybody loves light and everybody prefers natural light. But it’s a game of tradeoffs,” he told Bloomberg.

Zoom out: UCSB is scrambling to resolve a student housing shortage that’s led to campus protests. It’s a problem many universities across the US are facing, as undergrads log off Zoom and head to in-person class.—JW

Stat: More than 3 million baby boomers were pushed into early retirement due to the pandemic, according to new research from the St. Louis Fed. More shuffleboard and 4:45pm dinners mean fewer workers available for companies desperate to hire.

Quote: “I keep it on my desk as a reminder of what motivates me—keep going, keep working. One day, I’ll be able to upgrade to a larger-size cube.”

A handful of folks in the online crypto community, like blockchain lawyer Drew Morris, have recently been buying up cubes made of tungsten, which is 1.7x as dense as lead and has prodigious tensile strength, the WSJ reports. Sure, why not.

Read: We talked with Hertz’s interim CEO Mark Fields about why the company bought 100,000 EVs from Tesla. (Morning Brew)

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Halloween picks: 1) Spiders are actually pretty smart 2) a good Halloween book list 3) has Halloween been overcommercialized? 4) work horror stories 5) introducing: Skeloton and 6) elephants smashing pumpkins.

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Weekend conversation starters:

• Should we kill all the leafblowers?
• Which state has the best/worst drivers?
• What happens when your favorite thing goes viral?
• Is it worse to hand out floss or fruit to trick-or-treaters?

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