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Photo collage showing a hand pouring pills from a prescription bottle into their hand, two women talking, and a woman looking at paperwork with a pharmacist.

Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: Getty Images

When an employee picks up a prescription at the pharmacy, they’re not typically aware of the complex negotiations that took place behind the scenes to land on a price for the medication.

But HR leaders are increasingly placing these negotiations on their radars, in part due to scrutiny surrounding pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). These intermediaries work with both drugmakers and insurers to determine how much health plans pay for prescription drugs, and are seen as part of the cost of doing business for benefits teams that oversee health plans.

The PBM industry is dominated by three major players—CVS’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx—but that competitive landscape is beginning to shift, prompting some employers to look elsewhere. We talked to benefits leaders and healthcare consultants about what that transition entails, and why most employers are still sticking with the Big 3.

For more on why most employers are sticking with Big 3 PBMs over alternatives, keep reading here.—CV, MA

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DEI

Consider it done

Getty Images

PayPal will waive $30 million in processing fees for $1 billion in small business transactions as part of a new settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) signed on May 12.

The settlement resolves a DOJ investigation into PayPal over a 2020 program that guaranteed a $530 million investment for Black and minority-owned businesses. The government claimed that the program was unlawful under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which bars credit discrimination based in part on race or ethnicity.

PayPal will launch a new program for veteran-owned small businesses or those in farming, manufacturing, or technology. However, the settlement stipulates that PayPal admits to no wrongdoing and will not pay a separate fine to the federal government.

The agreement comes just one month after IBM agreed to pay $17 million in damages to the DOJ over its DEI programming, HR Brew reported previously. While the PayPal settlement is different from that with IBM, David Glasgow, co-founder of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University School of Law, told HR Brew that the two are linked.

For more on the settlement, keep reading here.—KP

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Looking out for new grads

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Morning Brew

It’s graduation season, but unfortunately for many new workforce entrants and rising seniors, some companies across the globe are decreasing their entry level hiring efforts.

Where in the world? Just 19% of 111 major companies surveyed in Japan plan to increase recruitment of 2027 graduates, according to a new survey from the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Japan News reported. Another 18% expect to recruit fewer graduates in 2027 than they did this year, a five-point increase. Agricultural machinery company Kubota Corp., for example, said it will recruit just 60 new graduates in 2027—one-quarter the number it recruited the year prior.

The few companies that plan to recruit more recent graduates said they’ll do so for operations and digital transformation roles.

Satellite view. While the unemployment rate for college graduates in the US has risen in recent years (5.7% by Q4 2025), some recent data shows signs of hope, the Wall Street Journal reported. New graduate hiring is expected to increase by 5.6% this Q2, and companies like McKinsey and Salesforce said they’ll increase early career hiring.

For more on entry level hiring efforts around the world, keep reading here.—KP

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WORK PERKS

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Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: Starbucks is cutting 300 more corporate roles; It cut 1,200 corporate roles in 2025. (Yahoo)

Quote: “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US…AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”—Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, on AI-related workforce reductions in the auto industry (CNBC)

Read: Meta has plans to cut another 8,000 workers. Employees say that the company culture is failing and “everyone is unhappy.” (Wired)

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Written by Courtney Vinopal, Maia Anderson, and Kristen Parisi

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