Convicted criminals will soon be expected to pay twice as much into victim services funds, if Bill C-37 makes its way through the House of Commons.

The money raised is used to fund government services, community organizations and, on occasion, to provide compensation to injured parties.

Not that the $$ are any great bonanza.

Victim surcharges would jump to $100 for a summary conviction and $200 for an indictable offence. In cases where a fine is imposed, the offender would instead have to pay a surcharge amounting to 30 per cent of the fine, up from 15 per cent, The Globe and Mail reports.

Your handshake may play a role at a job interview. But a personality test that can tell a prospective employers what's behind that handshake is likely far more important, the Wall Street Journal suggests.

Most major companies employ some sort of testing to help assess job applicants for conscientiousness, extroversion or any other traits that may be useful in forging a successful career. 

But job seekers should expect even closer scrutiny, given today's tight job market, experts warn.

"There are two issues: Is the person the best fit, ideally, to the pool of other candidates — and how likely are they going to succeed at the job?" explains John Fennig, a licensed psychologist and managing partner of DRI Consulting.

One of today’s more intriguing economic storylines concerns the wage gap between genders, which we’ve covered plenty on this site.

And if we’ve established anything, it’s that women almost always get a rawer pay deal than men. This is without question.

Though the notion often comes with several rationalizations. For instance, people contend women aren’t paid as much as men on the whole simply because they reach executive roles in far fewer numbers than their male counterparts.

This is correct – the world’s CEOs are overwhelmingly male – but it also conceals a further point: women aren’t only paid less than men late in their careers, when many males are climbing the corporate ladder, but right out of the gate, too.

When I daydream about striking it rich, winning one of those hulking, monstrous Powerball-like lotto payouts, I often take great pains to insist how normal I’d stay.

Despite my newfound riches – make that newfound fake riches – one of my favourite refrains is how I’d still avoid sending my children – er, make that fake children – to a private school.

It’s a sweeping stereotype I’ve got in my head (that private school students coming from a family of means have a higher sense of entitlement), but one I’d want to avoid at all costs.

Perhaps, though, the notion is wrong. By a new study, it isn’t private school grads that are destined to earn the most money in their careers, but rather alumni of another type of education.

In the U.S., perhaps now more than any other time, the rift between public and private sector is front and centre.

It’s not that Barack Obama, who will clash with Mitt Romney tonight in the last of their three presidential debates, is overtly pro-government, but it’s that Romney is so pro-business, which is to say he’s decidedly anti-government.

Yet for all the hand-wringing about high government wages critics say would never fly in the private sector, perhaps what we know about public-private pay gaps in the U.S. is all wrong.

And, more importantly, perception may be way off in Canada, too.

Business Insider  recently ran a list of the 50 sexiest CEOs in the world, which is precisely as insulting a feature as you’d guess it is.

For instance, the rundown’s no. 12 entry is Jamie Dimon, the JP Morgan Chase boss. If it’s not enough that the 56-year-old earned a $23 million pay package last year, does he really need to have that head of hair, too?

In any case, all the Business Insider  list did, surely, was make us feel down about ourselves, though perhaps things are about to get worse.

According to a new book, as well as an accompanying study, good-looking people really are better suited for professional success.

In 2010, Mark Hurd, amid allegations of sexual harassment, resigned his post as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

Ultimately, a probe found Hurd had not violated the computer company’s sexual harassment policy (instead, he had merely compromised HP’s standards of business conduct), but no matter: the exec was out.

Right away, Hurd’s friend and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison ripped the move – “The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago,” he wrote in an email to the New York Times – and decided to act. Within a month, Hurd was brought on as co-president and member of the board at Oracle.

By many accounts, Hurd has been a hit at Oracle so far, though is the executive’s success at consecutive companies rare in the business world? According to one new study, CEOs’ skills don’t necessarily translate, so perhaps it’s best we ditch the old adage that we need to pay through the nose for an executive out of fear they bolt for greener pastures.

The recession has slammed no shortage of demographics since it took hold four years ago, though who’s had it worst?

Certainly, the effects of the down economy on men, as an example, are well covered, but perhaps it’s the world’s youths that have gotten the rawest deal.

In Canada, youth unemployment is still through the roof, yet even getting a job may not mean what it once was.

A recent look at the starting salaries of young workers shows a damning nosedive from where they sat even 12 years ago.

When you’re in high school or university, working a low-paying job for spending cash, it’s near impossible not to live cheque-to-cheque.

This isn’t only common, it’s acceptable, and perhaps the principle even lends itself to recent grads or twentysomethings: it’s a tough world out there, so it could take months, even years, of earning at a real job before you can actually begin to save.

But hang on just one second …

According to a new survey from CareerBuilder, the age group that admitted they’re most likely to live paycheque-to-paycheque might surprise you.

The world is awash in tip jars, it seems, making it that much more confusing to know when to reach for your wallet. Whether it's the deli or the dry cleaners, more and more people think they're entitled to a gratuity.

We've been conditioned to believe that tipping, at least in Noth America, is expected, and if we don't cough up, we stand the chance a good chance of either a nasty incident or a crappy experience on our next visit to that restaurant or salon.

Some people view tipping as a wage subsidy, while other see it as a reward for good service. Where do you stand?