Coping with a $15 minimum wage in Seattle

Seattle's minimum wage hike will drive up the price of a burger from Dick's Drive In Restaurant.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The city council unanimously approved an increase to $15 an hour, which will be phased in over several years.

It's a significant hike, raising the rate more than $5 over what minimum wage workers currently make in the state of Washington. It's also well above the federal minimum wage rate of $7.25.

As other cities, states and Congress continue to fight over raising the minimum wage by even smaller amounts, Seattle business owners will already be learning how to survive while paying workers top dollar.

Washington business owner David Jones planned to open an additional location of Blazing Onion Burger in Seattle, but now he's going to wait to see how the new law plays out.

"I would love to come to Seattle, but I have to do it responsibly and wait until I have more information," Jones said.

Related: Washington state defies minimum wage logic

One point of controversy prompted the International Franchise Association to threaten to sue the city within hours of the bill's passage.

Under the law, businesses with fewer than 500 workers are given more time to comply. That would be fine with the franchisees, if they were considered one of those smaller businesses.

Instead, the law states that a business owner has to count all employees in the U.S., likely putting those affiliated with a national franchisor in the large-business category.

Franchises are independently owned even though they use a brand name, said Steve Caldeira, the IFA president. But under the new law, a Subway shop that has eight workers will have to pay a $15 wage years before a non-franchised sandwich shop with the same amount of workers.

Some small business owners are embracing the change.

"Anytime the workers in a city get a raise, they're going to have more money in their pockets, and they're going to eat more ice cream," said Molly Moon Neitzel, the owner of Molly Moon's six ice cream stores in Seattle.

Neitzel said her payroll costs will increase, but expects an increase in demand. She said she would rather her bottom line take a hit than raise prices.

That's not true for Dick's Drive-In Restaurant.

"We're all for higher wages," said Jasmine Donovan, vice president at the local burger joint that now has five Seattle locations and 200 workers.

The chain already pays starting employees $10.25 an hour, but it will have to start paying more by 2016. Plus, Donovan expects to raise the wage of other employees to preserve the existing wage structure and retain good workers.

She expects to absorb the hike by raising prices.

"Seattle wanted a higher minimum wage and hopefully our customers will be willing to pay for it in higher prices," Donovan said.

First Published: June 3, 2014: 6:53 PM ET

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Elon Musk staying at Tesla another 4-5 years

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he will stay at the company for at least another four or five years.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Those were three takeaways from Elon Musk's Q&A session at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday.

Tesla's stock has been on a wild ride of late. Since hitting a record high earlier this year, it has fallen about 20% and shareholders were eager to hear the CEO's plans.

Musk said he is committed to staying at the electric car company until it can ramp up production of its third-generation vehicle -- the much anticipated affordable Tesla (TSLA), which would sell for about $35,000 and have a range of about 200 miles.

That's a feat that Musk said could be achieved "somewhere in a 4- or 5-year time frame."

"Nobody is CEO of a company forever. Eventually they carry you out. In my case, it is quite difficult to be CEO of two companies," Musk said referring to his other job as CEO of SpaceX, the rocket manufacturer.

Related: Costs add up for Tesla

As for the company's so called "gigafactory", the $5 billion battery pack facility that will allow Tesla to ramp up production of the "affordable Tesla," Musk said that final site selection will not be made until the end of the year. A company spokesperson said that this had not been disclosed before.

In response to a question about Tesla's apparently abandoned trademark for the Model E, the previously expected name of the third-generation vehicle, Musk took the discussion into somewhat risque territory.

"A friend asked me at a party what are you going to name the third-generation car? Well we have the S and the X," Musk said, "so we might as well make it the E."

Finally, Musk said Ford called him saying it would sue Tesla for using the Model E trademark. Musk continued the story, "And we're like, Ford's killing sex... that's terrible. So, OK fine we won't use the model E."

A spokesperson for Ford (F) was not immediately available for comment.

Related: Tesla's U.S. sales may be cooling off

Tuesday's meeting ended in an unexpectedly touching way. An eleven-year-old shareholder who said Tesla was his first stock asked Musk if he would give him a tour of the factory floor. Musk, who has five sons of his own said, "Absolutely."

First Published: June 3, 2014: 7:59 PM ET

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Americans finally want World Cup tickets

Fans cheer Team USA at a World Cup preparation match in May.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The United States is the second-largest market for tickets to the upcoming soccer tournament in Brazil, according to data from viagogo, the global market for ticket resales.

That's a major shift from four years ago, when the World Cup was held in South Africa. Then, the United States didn't even rank among the top 10 countries buying tickets, says Oliver Wheeler, a spokesman for viagogo.

"This reflects the growing popularity of soccer in the U.S. and the close proximity of this year's World Cup," says Wheeler.

The ranking is based on World Cup ticket sales on viagogo, which is often described as the global version of StubHub.

Demand from U.S. fans has intensified as the World Cup approaches. The month-long tournament of 64 matches begins June 12.

Related: Meet soccer's biggest stars

There was a big spike in demand for tickets to see Team USA compete after news broke that Landon Donovan, America's top scorer, would not be playing. Searches for tickets to games in which the U.S. team is set to play jumped 230% after the news broke last month, says Wheeler.

While U.S. is not expected to make it very far, nearly 4.3 million Americans have searched for World Cup tickets as of this week.

In terms of sales, Americans have outpaced several countries where football (as it's known in most places is by far the most popular sport, including Argentina, Mexico, Portugal, France and Italy.

Chile is the only market that currently tops the United States. Spain, which won the World Cup in 2011, is the third largest buyer of World Cup tickets on viagogo.

Viagogo would not disclose its exact sales figures for the top 10 markets, but Wheeler said the average price paid by U.S. consumers is approaching $3,000.

Related: Stay in a 'sex motel' for the World Cup

Prices vary widely depending on the teams and stadium location. Games will be played in 12 cities across Brazil.

Tickets to the final match in Rio de Janeiro start at just under $5,000 and run upwards of $20,000. These tickets have a face value, or the price paid at the box office, of between $440 and $990.

Yet bargains can still be had for fans willing to venture deep into the Amazon.

Some of the best deals are for games to be played at the Arena da Amazonia in the remote city of Manaus, where stadium construction has been delayed because of flooding. Tickets to see Honduras play Switzerland in Manaus are currently selling for $20.

The bulk of World Cup tickets were "allocated" by FIFA, the group that governs international soccer, in two phases. The group said that Brazilians scooped up most of the 1.6 million tickets that were released as of April.

A limited number of tickets are still being sold over the counter at certain locations, including airports, in Brazil. On Wednesday, another 180,000 tickets will go on sale on FIFA's website.

First Published: June 4, 2014: 12:49 AM ET

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U.S. takes out computer malware that stole millions

Federal prosecutors say 30-year-old Evgeniy Bogachev led a gang of cyber criminals in Russia and Ukraine that was running the bot known as Gameover Zeus.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney)

The Gameover Zeus botnet, a network of virus-infected computers, targeted thousands of small businesses. And Cryptolocker, a software that encrypts files on computers, was used to extract ransom payments from computer owners who wanted access to their files.

Federal prosecutors also announced charges against 30-year-old Evgeniy Bogachev, who they say led a gang of cyber criminals in Russia and Ukraine that was running Gameover Zeus.

The United States is in talks with Russian authorities to try to secure Bogachev's arrest and have him sent to the U.S. for trial. But that remains an unlikely outcome at this point.

Related: How a celebrity hacker helped thwart 300 cyber-attacks

Gameover Zeus was responsible for more than $100 million in losses among U.S. victims, and up to one million computers worldwide were infected since 2011, according to the FBI.

Since emerging in 2013, Cryptolocker has been used to attack about 200,000 computers, half of which were in the U.S. In its first two months, criminals extorted an estimated $27 million from victims, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said Monday.

David Hickton, U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, whose office filed the charges, said the action was intended to help "hundreds of thousands of computer users who were unwittingly infected and victimized."

Among the victims, Hickton said, was the police department in Swansea, Mass.; it paid a ransom to cyber criminals to restore access to its files after its systems were infected by Cryptolocker.

In the case of Gameover Zeus, one victim lost $6.9 million from a fraudulent wire transfer from ar bank account.

Related: Inside the FBI's massive cybercrime bust

Victims' computers were most commonly infected when a user clicked on a link in an email that appeared to come from a trusted source. Victims of botnets often don't know their computers are infected until they've suffered losses.

The cases illustrate what is a fast-growing problem. While some criminals steal millions at a time from larger businesses, many more hope to evade notice by stealing relatively small amounts from small businesses and individuals.

In fact, many cyber criminals specialize in netting just a few hundred dollars from each victim. With potentially millions of victims, they can make large sums without attracting too much attention.

Leslie Caldwell, assistant U.S. attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division, said the operation to shut down Gameover Zeus began May 7, when Ukrainian authorities seized computer servers in Kiev and Donetsk that helped administer the botnet.

Ukraine's assistance came amid the ongoing crisis in that country, with pro-Russian separatists seizing control of eastern portions of the country and Russia annexing the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.

The Homeland Security Department's Computer Emergency Readiness Team is offering assistance to victims to remove the Gameover Zeus malware.

First Published: June 2, 2014: 8:35 PM ET

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Snowden's leaks prompt two movies

Edward Snowden's story: coming to a theater near you?

San Jose, Calif. (CNNMoney)

It's very possible, now that Oliver Stone has announced that he is writing a Snowden screenplay based on the book "The Snowden Files," published earlier this year by the Guardian reporter Luke Harding.

Stone and his producing partner Moritz Borman announced their plans -- and said Borman is "fast-tracking" the project -- in a press release on Monday.

The announcement comes on the heels of Sony Pictures Entertainment's acquisition of the rights to another book about the leaks: Glenn Greenwald's "No Place to Hide." Two well-known producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, are attached to that project.

Heightening the competition between the two projects, Greenwald has been publicly critical of Harding's book.

Greenwald's original stories based on Snowden's secret documents were published by the Guardian last June. Greenwald left the Guardian a few months later for a journalism startup called The Intercept.

Stone and Borman said Monday that Harding and others still at the Guardian "will also act as exclusive production and story consultants."

"This is one of the greatest stories of our time. A real challenge," Stone said in a statement. "I'm glad to have the Guardian working with us."

We'll see which, if either, film makes it into theaters.

Film portrayals of real-life events like Snowden's leaks matter because they affect how people understand the events.

The 2012 film "Zero Dark Thirty," about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was criticized by many for suggesting a link between enhanced interrogation techniques, or torture, and the eventual killing of bin Laden. "That impression is false," said Michael Morell, who was acting CIA director at the time.

Also making media news today...

• Time Warner's spin-off of Time Inc. is taking effect this week: The official split is scheduled for June 6. Over the weekend, this Web site -- which was a joint venture of CNN and Time Inc. -- became "100 percent CNN," as executive editor Lex Haris explained in this editor's note. The Time Inc. titles Fortune and Money introduced new Web sites.

CNNMoney's relaunch includes has a media section for the first time, and a Future of Media Flipboard that I'll be curating.

• Advertisers counting more DVR time: Advertisers and broadcasters are "laying groundwork" to buy and sell more TV commercials based on seven days of digital video recorder playback viewing, a long-awaited leap forward from the current standard of three days, according to Ad Age.

• Speaking of commercials: Variety says "NBC is seeking around $4.5 million for a 30-second spot in Super Bowl XLIX, according to ad-buying executives, a whopping sum that could represent a new record for pricing in the gridiron classic."

• Arsenio canceled: In February, the late-night show hosted by Arsenio Hall celebrated the renewal of its second season. Prematurely, it turns out: Last week the show was canceled.

• And there's this via Mediaite: "Yelpers Turn Diner That Kicked Out Gay Couple into a Highly-Rated Gay Bar."

First Published: June 2, 2014: 8:30 PM ET

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Intel exec among those presumed dead on Mt. Rainier

A vice president at Intel is among the six climbers presumed dead in a climbing accident.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Uday Marty and five others were climbing Mt. Rainier last week. They were expected to reach the 14,417-foot summit on Thursday, then descend. After park officials did not hear from the team, a helicopter search discovered tents and equipment believed to be theirs, said park spokeswoman Fawn Bauer.

She said the conditions meant there was "no viable chance of survival."

Connie Brown, a spokeswoman at Intel (INTC), confirmed that Marty is among the missing.

"He was an accomplished engineer and manager and was widely respected throughout the company," she said.

Marty was responsible for sales and marketing in several Southeast Asia markets, including Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to his company biography. He joined Intel in 1996 as an engineer.

Related: Intel chief says "the PC isn't dead"

The climbing group included two guides employed by Alpine Ascents International. The accident is the worst on Mt. Rainier in 23 years, according to the National Park Service.

--CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report

First Published: June 2, 2014: 10:19 PM ET

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7 traits the rich have in common

Billionaire moguls Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey are highly entrepreneurial with great confidence in their creative ventures. Those are just two of the traits broadly shared by the self-made rich, experts say.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Hard work, education, smart investing, frugality, risk taking, and plain ol' luck were some of the main factors ultra-high-net-worth investors used to describe themselves when surveyed by the Spectrem Group.

CNNMoney decided to dig a little deeper. We asked several wealth experts if they noticed any similar traits or attitudes among their clients with a net worth of at least $5 million.

Here's what surfaced:

Entrepreneurial: Going into business is a common path among the wealthy. While there are plenty of doctors, lawyers and corporate executives in the $5 million-plus group surveyed by Spectrem, those who go on to become business owners tend to build an even higher net worth.

Always on the clock: The 40-hour work week is like a part-time schedule for many, especially those who have built businesses. A 60- to 80-hour work week is more the norm, as are working vacations, according to certified financial planner Doug Flynn of Flynn Zito Capital Management.

High energy: Many high-net-worth individuals have a lot of energy, don't need much sleep, and enjoy generally upbeat attitudes, according to psychologist James Gottfurcht, who runs Los Angeles-based Psychology of Money Consultants.

Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be rich?

The super wealthy also tend to be visionaries, said psychologist Kristen Armstrong, a strategic wealth coach at Ascent Private Capital Management. She described many of her clients as "force of nature" people.

"I see again and again that they have a really great ability to envision possible futures ... [and] an amazing ability to focus their efforts and energy once they see a possibility."

Extremely confident: Gottfurcht said most of his clients who made their wealth possess what he calls an "expansive, healthy grandiosity." By that he means a sense of "I can do anything."

They're also open to creative ways of achieving their goals.

Armstrong, too, said her clients have great confidence in themselves and others, and firmly believe the world will accommodate their business ideas.

Also common, though, among some of Gottfurcht's wealthiest clients is what he termed "narcissistic personality disorder." That is, they think they're special, "require excessive admiration," have a high sense of entitlement and lack empathy for others, he said.

Related: Rich, really rich, and ultra rich

Discerning: For all their confidence, Armstrong's clients know they're not the smartest person in the room on every given issue. But they know to surround themselves with people who are -- which will help them realize their vision.

Among business owners, those who do best are the ones who move past sole proprietorship, and partner with others to expand their enterprises, said Flynn.

Modest: Despite glamorous Hollywood portrayals of the rich life, many multi-millionaires live more modestly. Most of Flynn's richest clients have chosen not to bump up their lifestyles in lockstep with their growing wealth.

"They still wear their old plaid shirt," he said. Or at least the men do.

Risk tolerant, but not impulsive: Anyone who runs a business is by nature a risk taker, Flynn noted. But there are no investing swashbucklers among his clients.

They have some short-term investments but tend to have a longer time horizon than most investors. Whether they invest in a stock or a building, they stick with it as long as it still makes sense to them.

But they won't go all in on one bet, according to Flynn.

"There's always the guy who bets it all on something, gets lucky and then gets out. But that's not the recipe for most people," Flynn said.

First Published: June 1, 2014: 4:06 PM ET

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