Canada's salary freeze for many non-union workers last year appears to have thawed as employers say they plan to award base pay increases averaging 2.9 per cent in 2011.

A study by human resource consultancy Mercer, released Thursday, found that after modest planned pay hikes in 2010, more are expected in 2011.

The survey covered 600 of Canada's largest organizations, employing 845,340 non-unionized people across the country.

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Are you seeing pay increases at your workplace? Let us know. (This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' responses.)

A Canada Border Services Agency officer who had to give up her full-time position after the birth of her first child has won a six-year battle with her employer over its failure to accommodate her.

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Her employer denied her requests for schedule changes, saying the Canadian Border Services Agency had an unwritten policy not to provide full-time hours to those requesting accommodation on the basis of child-rearing responsibilities.

In a decision handed down on Friday, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal said the federal agency discriminated against Fiona Johnstone and employees like her who seek accommodation based on family status.

Does your workplace make accommodations for parents? What services does your employer offer? What would you like to see them offer?

(This poll is not scientific. It based on readers' responses.)

Investor Warren Buffet at a conference at Georgetown University in Washington. (Gerald Herbert/Associated Press)

Canadian eBay billionaire Jeff Skoll has joined the list of wealthy families and individuals who have joined a campaign to give at least half their wealth to charity. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is working with Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates to get other billionaires to donate most of their fortunes.

Buffett, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, decided in 2006 to give 99 per cent of his fortune to charity.

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While few Canadians are billionaires, many contribute to charities with financial donations as well as time. Tell us how you give back. Share your stories below.

(This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' responses.)

A new ban on swearing at Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs could have some traders scrambling to find creative new ways to express themselves.

Following a Senate hearing that exposed expletive-laden emails, the company has declared four-letter words off-limits.

The swearing ban will be enforced using a screening software that will catch offending words in emails and text messages.

Does your workplace enforce swearing or other bans? Have you ever sent an embarrassing email you regret?

(This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' responses.)

Marketing officials for Lions Gate Entertainment pose at a screening of Saw IV in 2007. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)

By CBC News

Saw, a serial killer film franchise, has been named the most successful horror-movie series by Guinness World Records. The six Saw movies, in which victims valiantly try to escape intricate traps set by the "jigsaw killer," have grossed $733 million US.

Saw, created in 2003 by Australian director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, beat out:

• Scream (three films): $507 million.

• Friday the 13th (12 films): $465 million.

• A Nightmare On Elm Street (nine films): $447 million.

• Halloween (10 films) $367 million.

(This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' responses.)

In a recent column for CBC News, consumer advocate Ellen Roseman writes about the proliferation of added fees for goods and services. From the system access fee tacked on to phone bills to the expanding cost of airline tickets, when it comes to sticker prices, what you see is no longer what you get.

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Ontario recently added and then dropped a controversial eco fee that allowed retailers to charge extra for everything from detergents and driveway sealers to batteries.

The fee was poorly advertised and many customers didn't spot the added cost until they checked their receipts.

We want to know what added fees and extra costs you've noticed. Are you paying more than you should?

Canada's unemployment rate dipped below eight per cent in June for the first time in more than a year.

Statistics Canada said Friday the economy added a whopping 93,200 jobs in June, almost all of them in Ontario and Quebec.

The unexpectedly large number of jobs that were added reduced Canada's unemployment rate to 7.9 per cent.

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Have you been on a job search recently? How did it work out for you? Did you find a job, and if so, is it one you're qualified for? Share your job search stories below.

A haircut in Ontario and B.C. will cost more now that the HST has gone into effect.

The new harmonized sales tax has arrived in Ontario and British Columbia, bringing with it anger from some and plaudits from others.

The new tax took effect just after midnight Thursday. It blends the provincial sales tax - eight per cent in Ontario and seven per cent in British Columbia -- with the five per cent federal goods and services tax to create a new HST.

On Wednesday, Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said consumers will be hit hard.

"Canada Day is typically an expensive day at the pumps. The HST will slap another eight per cent on to the cost of fuel," he said.

The new HST will apply to a host of products and services for which consumers used to pay just the five per cent GST.

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Did you buy anything before the HST went into effect Thursday to save some money?

Police say a man who already owes $30,000 in outstanding fines added six more tickets to his list of violations under Newfoundland and Labrador's Highway Traffic Act.

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Bill Gates, left, and Warren Buffet, seen here in 2007, are launching a campaign to get other American billionaires to give at least half their wealth to charity. (Nati Harnik/AP Photo/Canadian Press)

Technology mogul Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett are calling on their fellow American billionaires to give away at least half their wealth to charity, a move that some say could change the face of philanthropy.

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The goal is to create a social expectation that the rich should give away their wealth and to create a peer group that can offer advice on philanthropy, Melinda Gates, the wife of Bill Gates and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told the Wall Street Journal.

Buffett has pledged to gradually give away 99 per cent of his wealth to charitable foundations. "The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude," Buffet wrote in a letter to Fortune magazine. "Were we to use more than one per cent of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99 per cent can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others."

Gates and Buffett, the two wealthiest individuals in the United States, have set a campaign target of $600 billion.

"I have fun making money and ultimately I will give a lot of it away," business magnate Donald Trump told Forbes magazine.

Many CBC.ca readers commended the campaign. Buffett and Gates "should be held up as true humanitarians and an example to all mankind," wrote a reader from Montreal who goes by the username Strathacona123.

Others were skeptical. "I think this is a very bad use of wealth," wrote Moe Skidder from Prince George, B.C. "Rather than creating productive and innovative new industries to solve problems, this creates research and charity organizations that are dependent on the almighty buck, from the almighty gurus."

What do you think of the Gates and Buffett philanthropic campaign? Do you think it will encourage rich people to donate more to charities?

(This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' votes.)